Hi Eugene
As you take notes it would be great if you could share the ones that would be helpful for everyone. If you have any feedback on the lessons we are always happy to hear it. It helps us constantly improve the lessons.
-Dani
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I plan on raiding the supply closet to see what the school has extra lying around
What a mess. I loved it. Students got into it rather well. I am not sure about the time spent on it but there were some elaborate devices created. The follow up lesson included improvement and further communications to accomplish 1.3.
If my computers just hold up I will fun with this class.
Did anyone find any useful materials for this unit. I had to grab what I had on hand but I would like to prepare for this better in the future. I grabbed some old CDās because they can reflect light.
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This was a pretty fun lesson for my students. The supplies I had for students were party cups, rubber bands, a slinky, colored paper, little pom pom balls of various colors, clapper things that were party favors in the dollar store, tops, clothes pins, and yarn. If I was teaching this lesson again, I would not put the clappers out; while they were fun, the students who chose to use them as part of their device were overall less creative and engaged in making the device. Many students were still able to do things with sound by using cups and rubber bands. I am super glad I had the clothes pins; that was the last supply I found for this lesson and many of my students used it in creative ways.
After having taught this, I would really recommend putting a timer on for students. Because of our block schedule I had to split this lesson over two days and the first day, I didnāt put a timer on them and some groups made the simplest device they could quickly and others were taking a lot of time to put thought into them, but the next day I timed them on the activity extensions and that went a lot better. I would also use the extension activity where they have to modify the device so it still works if 1 person is out of the room; that made all the devices a lot better.
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I used noisemakers and I felt they actually kept my students from being as creative as they could be. Other students found ways to make sound with rubber bands and wasnāt as loud as the noisemakers.
This appears to be a well thought out activity. The use of simulators has always incites students to experimen
As a first time teacher of CSP, I plan to follow the curriculum to a T the first time out. I see the curriculum chunked in such a way as to have the students use inquiry to tease out the practical limitations of the binary language in order to better appreciate the ways in which programmers have used binary to express all the various kinds of information we see on our screens.
So I certainly am having fun so far with my small CSP section as we do this lesson. A question Iād like to pose to the group: what is the most CREATIVE tool a pair of students has created in the experience of those whoāve taught this before? Iāve got a kid working on a circuit right now, but somehow that feels like itās cheatingā¦ sort of. 
I am really looking forward to this lesson. The āhands onā and kinesthetic aspects. I have two IEP students in my class that, while capable, are easily discouraged. This lesson is a great introduction to the idea of binary and I am really hopeful that it will help to hook them into the course.
One of the ways in which I plan to teach this course is to do as many of the activities with the students as possible.
In my classroom I have many of the suggested materials and plan to try adding wire under tension. In that way we could try and communicate while out of line of sight and while at distance.
I plan to try all of the suggested activities and materials and some of the extension activities; I am too new to know what activities/supplemental materials will/or will not work! 
One of the posters to this thread mentioned that they have posters listing the 7 core concepts. This is a really good idea and a way for my students to point to the concept(s) that they believe the lesson covers.
I plan to assess the learning from this lesson by written reflections and discussion.
I plan to use this lesson exactly as prescribed. I think the lessons build very well on each other. After I have run through the lesson, if I discover any gaps I can always address them. Having said that I do not anticipate to find any given what I have seen in the lessons so far.
I really like this lesson and plan on using. Maybe I am thinking too literal; but how was the question communicated in binary? Or are the partners to assume that the question has been asked and that only a response is necessary?
Great question! Partners can assume that the question is known by both people, and that the binary encodings for the responses (i.e. the ārulesā for the answers) are known ahead of time as well. So all that needs to be communicated in binary is the response itself.
I agree, I feel that chunking the lessons together will allow the students and I the ability to work with simple binary messages and progress and develop a strong foundation in how binary messages are transmitted. Our knowledge base will increase as each of the chunked lessons in the group are presented. I believe the objectives, activities, videos, and student documents will enhance the learning. I will use the assessments that are in each of the lessons.
Iām on a block schedule so I have combined these two lessons twice now. It works well, I just have to be careful to allow time to discuss the first activity before the second one. I also have them write out the process they use for responding with four answers. This helps them complete the lesson on sending a binary message. It also allows me to verify they used a 2 state machine.