High School, Computer Science Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 3)

Program Your Own COVID-19 or Flu Simulator with Scratch

STEM Activity

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Are you curious about how public health officials think about and model how diseases like flu and COVID-19 move from one person to another? In this activity, you will use the kid-friendly programming language Scratch to write a simulation that uses bouncing dots to represent healthy and sick people. The simulation will show how we can take measures to slow the spread of a transmissible disease. Read more

Sounds Like RFID: Using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Reader to Make Musical Instruments

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Passports, identification cards, bus passes, and even some credit cards contain RFID tags. An RFID (radio-frequency identification) tag allows a card to be read by a computer from a short distance away. While this is very useful in everyday life, would you believe you can make music with it? RFID + sampled music sounds + a little crafting = a fun musical instrument that is limited only by your imagination. In this science project, you will make handbells out of paper cups that play real sounds,… Read more

Use an Arduino™ to Control a Color-Changing Infinity Mirror

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

This project is a follow-up to the Science Buddies project Explore Optical Illusions: Build an Infinity Mirror, which shows you how to build a basic infinity mirror using light emitting diodes (LEDs) and arts and crafts materials. What if you wanted to build an infinity mirror that could change colors, like the one in Figure 1? Figure 1. A color-changing infinity mirror. You can do this by using special RGB (red, green, and blue) LEDs. Just like the pixels… Read more

Bits, Bytes, and Bases: Write a JavaScript Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal Converter

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

This is a challenging first computer science project. You'll learn the basics of how digital devices can represent numbers using only 0's and 1's, and you'll write a JavaScript program to convert numbers between binary, decimal and hexadecimal notation. Read more

Computer Simulation of an Artificial Neural Network

Lesson Plan Grade: 9th-12th

Using the Netlogo platform to run simulations of a basic neural network called the perceptron, students explore a basic, yet powerful, model of machine learning as they are challenged to understand the logic. Students engage in the perceptron model and discover a weakness of the model. The students then move on to run simulations on Netlogo with the multi-layer perceptron which overcomes the weakness in the original perceptron model. Engineering Connection Machine learning… Read more

Digital Voice Analysis

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Use sound recording and analysis software to record voices of your family members. Can you figure out ways to identify each family member by just looking at the analyzed sound patterns from their voice (e.g., spectral frequency analysis)? Develop a hypothesis about what types of sound analysis will identify an individual. Have a helper record additional test files of your family members, without telling you which file belongs to whom. Unplug your computer speakers and see if you can… Read more

Encryption

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Want to send coded messages to your friends? Can you write a simple letter-substitution encryption program in Python or JavaScript? How easy is it to break the simple code? Can you write a second program that "cracks" the letter-substitution code? Investigate other encryption schemes. What types of encryption are least vulnerable to attack? Read more

Explore Satellites with Powerful Simulation Software

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The first man-made satellite, the Sputnik 1, was launched in 1957. As of late 2020, more than 2,600 man-made satellites orbit Earth, with a little over 70% of them in low Earth orbit. If you would like to delve into how satellites and their sensors are configured, or into how their orbits are planned—and do not shy away from a little programming—this project is for you! With the help of FreeFlyer®—powerful software that allows you to simulate satellite orbit and… Read more

Feel Free to Sleep at School... If You're a Computer!

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Sleeping in class isn't allowed... unless you're a computer! In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that putting your school's computers to sleep when they're not in use might reduce a school's energy bill significantly. In a study done at the North Thurston public schools in Olympia, Washington, EPA officials worked with the district to cut computer energy and costs by approximately $45,000 annually! How? By implementing a variety of power-management strategies for the… Read more

Game of Life

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

The Game of Life is the invention of the mathematician John Conway. It is a cellular automaton, consisting of a grid of squares that turn "on" or "off" depending on simple mathematical rules that involve neighboring squares. Depending on how the grid is first set up (i.e., the initial conditions), various interesting patterns appear. Can you write a Game of Life program in a programming language of your choice? If you are new to programming, check out these resources from the Raspberry Pi… Read more

High School, Computer Science Projects, Lessons, Activities (36 results)

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