Inquiry Based Learning of Selected Computer Sciences Concepts and Principles

Abstract

Abstract In the article we describe the proposal of two unplugged activities verified in practice together with methodological commentaries on how to use them in computer science education. The first activity is oriented on discovering and understanding the basic principles and rules of computer communication carried out by pupils themselves. We encourage pupils to simulate communication in a computer network and solve raised problems. The aim is to lead pupils to discover the encoded message within transmitted information (the structure of TCP/IP packet) and to realize the significance and importance of communication protocols. The second activity is oriented on discovering and devising the principles of information encoding; the code length dependence on the quantity of states, unambiguous encoding, the use of n-ary trees in encoding, etc.