Lesson: Cracking the (Bar) Code
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by ASEE
This lesson for students in grades 5 through 12 explores how computerized barcoding has simplified distributing and pricing of products. Students learn about encoding and decoding, the barcoding system, and how a mathematical formula is embedded in barcoding to safeguard against errors. They use websites to identify product barcodes, test codes from everyday products, and work as an engineering team to come up with the next generation of information embedding systems.
Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | 6 Comments »
Tags: Computer Programming, Computer Science, Math Lesson Plans, Mathematics
InvenTeams is a Lemelson-MIT national initiative to foster inventiveness among high school students. Teams composed of students, teacher(s) and mentors identify a problem to address with an invention, and receive up to $10,000 ($2,000 can be a teacher stipend) to develop a prototype.
In this activity for grades 6 to 12, students use simple materials to design, build, and test a model of a free-standing structure used to support overhead road signs. First, students watch a video on the engineering design process. Then the design challenge is defined. Next, students conduct research by looking at and discussing images of sign support structures, observing overhead signs in their own environment, and watching a video about bridge design for comparison.
In this lesson for grades 6 through 12, the goal is for students to figure out how to collect steam from boiling “polluted” water and then let it condense to create pure, clean water.
