Videos

Several videos have been produced by Orange Studios and Shuriken, sponsored by Google.

The embedded videos below are from YouTube and are also shown on the individual activity pages. The full collection of videos is available from the CS Unplugged channel on YouTube. If you want to download them for playing offline, you can get them from Vimeo.

Unplugged - The Show #

This video introduces a one-hour show that is used to communicate to children what the topic of Computer Science is about. It’s closer to a game show than a lecture on the entertainment-education spectrum, and is intended for use in any public setting where you need to keep the audience engaged. The ideas could be used by outreach coordinators, science centers, university faculty, and senior students who are giving a talk to school-age students. The goal is to make such a talk memorable and entertaining, as well as informative. Note that the target audience for the video is potential presenters (to get ideas), not students, and although the students in the video are around 12 years old, the same ideas can be adapted for younger and older students, including adult audiences.

Binary Numbers #

The videos below are enactment of the Binary Numbers Activity. The binary number system plays a central role in how information of all kinds is stored on computers. Understanding binary can lift a lot of the mystery from computers, because at a fundamental level they’re really just machines for flipping binary digits on and off.

Binary #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

Also available on TeacherTube in in the following languages:

Counting in Binary #

Binary Numbers – Email #

Other Representations #

Image Representation #

The videos below are enactment of the Image Representation Activity. This activity explores how images are displayed, based on the pixel as a building block. In particular, the great quantity of data in an image means that we need to use compression to be able to store and transmit it efficiently. The compression method used in this activity is based on the one used in fax machines, for black and white images.

Run-Length Coding #

Making Contact #

Error Detection #

The videos below are enactment of the Error Detection Activity. This activity is a magic trick which most audiences find intriguing. In the trick the demonstrator is “magically” able to figure which one out of dozens of cards has been turned over, using the same methods that computers use to figure out if an error has occurred in data storage.

Parity #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

Also available on TeacherTube in the following languages:

Introduction #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

Parity – Error Detection #

Computer Science Buskers? (Error Detection) #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

  • Computer Science Buskers? (Error Detection) French
  • Computer Science Buskers? (Error Detection) Chinese

Searching Algorithms #

The videos below are enactment of the Searching Algorithms Activity. Searching for a keyword or value is the basis of many computing applications, whether on an internet search engine or looking up a bank account balance.

Sorting Algorithms #

The videos below are enactment of the Sorting Algorithms Activity. Many clever algorithms have been devised for putting values into order efficiently. In this activity students compare different algorithms to sort weights in order.

Sorting Algorithms #

Sorting Networks #

The videos below are enactment of the Sorting Networks Activity. Here we use a fun team activity to demonstrate an approach to parallel sorting. It can be done on paper, but we like to get students to do it on a large scale, running from node to node in the network.

Sorting Networks #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

Also available on TeacherTube in the following languages:

Sorting Networks #

Routing and Deadlock #

The videos below are enactment of the Routing and Deadlock Activity.. Computer networks are based on passing messages from computer to computer. This sounds simple in principle, but in practice all sorts of contention and bottlenecks can occur. This activity gives some first hand experience of such issues, with a game for a group of students.

The Orange Game #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

Finite State Automata #

The videos below are enactment of the Finite State Automata Activity. Finite state automata (FSAs) sound complicated, but the basic idea is as simple as drawing a map. This fun activity is based around a fictitious pirate story which leads to the unlikely topic of reasoning about patterns in sequences of characters.

Treasure Hunt #

Also available on YouTube in the following languages:

Cryptographic Protocols #

The videos below are enactment of the Cryptographic Protocols Activity. This is another activity that achieves something that doesn’t seem possible – people who don’t trust each other and can’t see each other are able to agree on the outcome of a random coin flip.

Cryptographic Protocols #

Public Key Encryption #

The videos below are enactment of the Public Key Encryption Activity. Public key encryption is an extraordinary recent development that has made internet commerce possible. It allows people to encrypt and decrypt messages without having to share a password to unlock them. This activity works with two people, but it’s most exciting with a whole class, with everybody else trying to intercept a message sent between two students.

Public Key Encryption #

Human Interface Design #

The videos below are enactment of the Human Interface Design Activity. Designing good interfaces has become an important industry, and successful products often depend on having excellent interfaces. This activity explores just how hard it is to get things right.

HCI – The Stroop Effect #

Modems Unplugged #

The videos below are enactment of the Modems Unplugged Activity. This activity involves listening to songs and finding hidden messages based on the same principle as a modem.

Reaching Out – Binary Codes #

Santa’s Dirty Socks (Divide and Conquer) #

The videos below are enactment of the Santa’s Dirty Socks (Divide and Conquer) Activity. This activity introduces the idea of “divide and conquer” using a fictitious but serious problem – a pair of dirty socks have accidentally been wrapped in one of the presents that Santa is about to deliver, and he needs to figure out which one to avoid a child getting a nasty surprise.