Abstract:

Due to the recent progress of ICT, computer science education for kids has received great attention. However, most of such attempts focus on computational science, such as programming, but not on informational science, which includes how to express information, like digitization.

With the motivation to teach informational science to kids, the author has already developed workshops and classes about the Fourier transform and the sampling theorem [1, 2], both of which are subjects touch at universities with triangle functions, integrals, and some other complicated mathematical notions. To teach these complicated subjects, the author has simplified the Fourier transform using averages, which are taught at elementary schools, and one big feature of our approach is a hands-on approach so that kids can touch and operate materials developed for them.

However, we have to assume in these workshops that kids have already learned average in math, and thus we had to exclude kids in early elementary school grades from our workshops. In this paper, we show how to extend the previous workshops without using averages. These workshops were already conducted twice: at Fukuoka City Science Museum and Nova77 STEM Workshop.

In the past workshops, we explained the Sampling theorem after the Fourier transform, which requires the notion of average. Instead, without using the Fourier transform, we just only treat the Sampling theorem, which shows the minimal frequency of digitization to re-construct a continuous function, like sound waves. To learn the basic idea of this theorem, we use the basic story of the proposed workshop is like a puzzle-solving game, where the kids first see a water pearl, which makes us confused that droplets of dropping water are climbing up when we see it through flashing light. In this phenomenon, we can observe some important notions of digitization and sampling. To understand these notions and to solve the reason why such an interesting phenomenon happens, using many hands-on materials, such as flip books, mini fans, and iPad apps, kinds can learn these notions and solve the reason why such an interesting phenomenon happens in a step-by-step manner, which finally leads them to understanding essential ideas of the Sampling theorem.

References:
[1] Daisuke Ikeda, "LESSONS ON INFORMATION IN TERMS OF THE FOURIER TRANSFORM FOR PRIMARY-AGED STUDENTS", Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2018), pp.3734-3739, 2018.
[2] Daisuke Ikeda, "EXTEND LECTURES FOR KIDS ABOUT INFORMATION INTO SAMPLING THEOREM AND THE FOURIER TRANSFORM", Proceedings of the 13rd Annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference.

Keywords:

Sampling Theorem, Information Theory, frequency.