KS4 – Data representations Unit overview

KS4 – Data representations

Unit introduction
Data can be represented in many different forms. You can see this happening throughout time, for example, in the use of cave paintings
and clay tablets, through to the use of Morse code. Data and instructions in a computer are formed using a series of 1s and 0s. In this
unit, learners will discover how numbers, letters, images, and sound are represented with 1s and 0s. They will also learn about the factors
that impact on the quality of those representations, such as bit depth. Finally, learners will be introduced to the concept of compression
and discover how to perform run length encoding and Huffman coding as forms of lossless compression.

Schools in England
This unit has been mapped to the GCSE computer science specifications of all major examination boards in England: AQA (A), OCR (O),
Edexcel (Ex), and Eduqas (Eq). You can use the checklist next to each lesson below to see the lessons that relate to your examination
board’s specification. You can find a detailed breakdown of the learning objectives in the ‘Data representation objectives’ spreadsheet
provided with the lesson resources for Lesson 1.

Overview of lessons

Lesson Brief overview Learning objectives A O Ex Eq

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KS4 – Data representations Unit overview

1 What is Learners will discuss examples of representation ● Give examples of the use of ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
representation? from storytelling to clay etchings. They will then be representation
introduced to how data is represented in computers. ● Explain that computers use binary
Next, they will examine a cake recipe and decide to represent all data and
which elements are data and which are instructions. instructions
Finally, they will think about how you could represent ● Explain how binary relates to two-
a message using only two states: on and off. state electrical signals

2 Number bases Learners will be reminded of how the base-10 ● Explain the difference between ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
number system works, before being presented with base-2 and base-10 numbers
the base-2 number system. They will then complete ● Convert between binary and
some conversions from binary to decimal and decimal numbers
decimal to binary.

3 Binary Learners will discover how to count in binary so that ● Count in binary ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
addition they can establish an understanding of the patterns ● Perform addition in binary on two
that occur when numbers increase by 1 in binary. binary numbers
They will then be shown the four rules of binary ● Perform addition in binary on
addition, before practising adding two binary three binary numbers
numbers together. Finally, learners will move on to
adding three binary numbers together.

4 Binary Learners will be introduced to the four rules of ● Perform subtraction in binary ✔
subtraction binary subtraction. They will then perform

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KS4 – Data representations Unit overview

subtraction on a series of binary numbers.

5 Binary shifts Learners will be introduced to binary shifting that ● Perform binary shifts ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
can be used for multiplication and division of binary ● Describe situations where binary
numbers. They will discover why binary shifting shifts can be used
might be needed, and they will learn about overflow ● Explain how overflow errors can
and underflow. occur
● Explain how underflow occurs

6 Signed binary Learners will be introduced to the concept of signed ● Compare signed and unsigned ✔ ✔
integers and unsigned integers. They will find out how to integers
identify the least significant and most significant bits. ● Use sign and magnitude to
They will learn how to identify a positive and represent positive and negative
negative integer using sign and magnitude. Finally, integers
they will discover two’s complement. ● Use two’s complement to
represent positive and negative
integers

7 Hexadecimal Learners will be reminded about base 2 and base 10, ● Explain why and where ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
then they will be introduced to hexadecimal, which is hexadecimal notation is used
base 16. They will be shown the traditional method ● Explain how numbers are
for converting between base 2 and base 16, then represented using hexadecimal
they will learn about a simpler method that uses two ● Convert decimal numbers to and
tables to simplify the process. from hexadecimal numbers

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8 Representing Learners will be introduced to the ASCII character ● Determine the maximum number ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
text set. They will learn that it traditionally used 7 bits, but of states that can be represented
now uses 8 bits. They will calculate the maximum by a binary pattern of a given
number of characters that can be represented using length
7 bits, then they will be introduced to the ASCII table. ● Explain how ASCII is used to
They will then practise coding words using decimal represent characters, and its
and binary numbers. limitations
● Explain what a character set is
● Describe how character codes are
commonly grouped and run in
sequence within encoding tables

9 Unicode and The lesson begins with revisiting ASCII and its ● Explain the need for Unicode ✔ ✔ ✔
file size limitations, namely that it can only represent 128 ● State that Unicode uses the same
calculation characters. You will then introduce Unicode as an codes as ASCII up to 127
alternative for a more universal character set. ● Calculate the number of bytes
Learners will then calculate the number of bits that needed to store a piece of text
are needed to store a piece of text using ASCII and
Unicode.

10 Representing First, learners will investigate what a pixel is by ● Describe what a pixel is and how ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
bitmap images looking at a pixelated image. They will then discover pixels relate to bitmap images
how colour depth and resolution are used to ● Describe colour depth and
determine the number of available colours and the resolution

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KS4 – Data representations Unit overview

image size. Finally, learners will find out about ● Define ‘metadata’
metadata and the types of metadata used with a ● Give examples of metadata
bitmap image. applied to a bitmap image

11 Bitmap file First, learners will recap their understanding of ● Calculate the file size of bitmaps ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
size calculation bitmap images. They will then discover how to ● Describe how the number of
calculate the file size of a bitmap image using pixels and colour depth can affect
different examples. Then, they will investigate how the file size of a bitmap image,
the number of pixels and colour depth can affect the using examples
file size of an image.

12 Representing First, learners will be reminded of how sound travels. ● Explain why analogue sound data ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
sound This will then lead into an explanation of how sound needs to be converted into binary
can be interpreted digitally. Through examples and digits
demonstrations, learners will find out about the key ● Describe the concepts of
terms: sampling, sample rate, and sample resolution. sampling, sample rate, and
sample resolution

13 Sound file size First, learners will recap their understanding of how ● Calculate file size requirements of ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
calculation sound is interpreted digitally. They will then learn sound files
how to calculate the file size of a sound file through ● Describe the effect of sample
demonstrations and examples. Finally, they will rate, duration, and sample
discover how sample rate, duration, and bit depth resolution on the playback quality
affect the quality of the sound recorded. and the size of a sound file

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KS4 – Data representations Unit overview

● Give examples of metadata

Note: Learners will use Audacity to help them applied to sound files
understand some of the key points addressed in this
lesson.

14 Learners will already be familiar with the terms ‘bit’, ● Define the terms ‘bit’, ‘nibble’, ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Measurements ‘nibble’, and ‘byte’. They will now learn about other ‘kilobyte’, ‘megabyte’, ‘gigabyte’,
of storage types of storage capacity, and they will practise ‘terabyte’, and ‘petabyte’
converting between units of measurement. They will ● Compare ‘kibibyte’, ‘mebibyte’,
also learn about the difference between storage ‘gibibyte’, and ‘tebibyte’ to
capacities such as ‘megabyte’ and ‘mebibyte’ to help ‘megabyte’, ‘gigabyte’, and
support them when performing calculations. ‘terabyte’’
● Convert between units of
measurement

15 Lossy and Learners will be introduced to the concept of data ● Explain what data compression is ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
lossless compression and learn about why it is needed, and ● Explain why data may be
compression that it comes in different forms. They will be compressed, and that there are
introduced to the terms ‘lossy’ and ‘lossless’. different ways to compress data
● Define ‘lossy compression’ and
‘lossless compression’

16 Run length Learners will be introduced to run length encoding ● Explain how data can be ✔ ✔
encoding (RLE), which is a type of lossless compression. compressed using run length

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KS4 – Data representations Unit overview

Through demonstrations and examples, learners will encoding (RLE)

find out about frequency pairs and manually ● Represent data in RLE
perform RLE on some data. Finally, they will learn frequency/data pairs
about the term ‘compression ratios’ and calculate ● Calculate compression ratios
the compression ratios for different file sizes.

17 Huffman Learners will be introduced to Huffman coding, ● Explain how data can be ✔
coding which is another form of lossless compression. They compressed using Huffman
will discover how the algorithm works and practise coding
applying it to some sample data, and they will ● Interpret a Huffman tree
practise interpreting Huffman trees. ● Calculate the number of bits
required to store a piece of data
compressed using Huffman
coding

18 Summative This is the final lesson of the unit, and is an ● Summarise learning through a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
assessment opportunity for learners to confirm their final assessment
understanding of the content covered in the unit.
The assessment consists mostly of closed-form
questions with a few longer, exam-style questions
towards the end.

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Progression
This unit progresses learners’ knowledge and understanding of data representations and compression. View the learning graphs to see
clear progression routes.

Curriculum links
National curriculum links
● develop their capability, creativity and knowledge in computer science, digital media and information technology
● develop and apply their analytic, problem-solving, design, and computational thinking skills

Assessment
Summative assessment
● This unit includes a final summative assessment to be used at the end of the unit. An answer sheet is also provided.

Subject knowledge
This unit focuses on data representations and compression.

Enhance your subject knowledge to teach this unit through the following training opportunities:

Online training courses

● Data Representation in Computing: Bring Data to Life
● How Computers Work: Demystifying Computation

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Face-to-face and remote courses

● An introduction to algorithms, programming and data in computer science (face-to-face)
● An introduction to algorithms, programming and data in computer science (remote)
● Maths in computer science (face-to-face)
● Maths in computer science (remote)

Resources are updated regularly — the latest version is available at: ncce.io/tcc.

This resource is licensed under the Open Government Licence, version 3. For more information on this licence, see ncce.io/ogl.

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