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Morse Code Lesson Plan
by Lara Steele

This page contains, ready to go, all the background information you need to teach the Morse Code Lesson, including overheads, handouts, quizzes, and evaluation materials. You will need a printer, pens, pencils, transparencies, and other 'normal' classroom supplies. Please feel free to use these materials, share them, or reproduce them, but make sure TerraX.org receives credit.

Objectives

The student will be able to state a few of the non-spoken types of languages in our world and explain when and why they are used.
The student will be able to define Morse code and state how it is used.
The student will be able to explain why communication is important.
The student will be able to send and receive Morse code and translate it into words.

Material:

Morse code worksheet (1 per student)
Answer key to the Morse code worksheet
Story
Messages
Buzzer or telegraph or a toy that squeaks (1 per every five students); this needs to be able to imitate the dots and dashes of Morse code.
Flashlight, unless you choose the telegraph option from above. (1 per every five students; the flashlights should have a button that can be pushed for a short amount of time instead of switching the light on then off. The button allows for quick flashes or longer dashes.)
Boxes, if you opted for flashlights, lined with aluminum foil and a whole cut in the bottom of the box to allow a light to shine from the bottom of the box and reflect inside. (1 per every five students)
Overhead of worksheet
Overhead pens
Chalk and board or clean transparency
Overhead projector
Bag of candy (1 piece per student), if you are into bribery.
Tape player and tape with the sounds from the Morse code lesson.
- You can tape these off of the computer after you load the Morse code page.

Outline:

Read the lesson on Morse code use and Morse Code Translator and Game. This will give you a thorough understanding of the material to be taught.

Explain to the students that communication is one of the things that enables us to live with and understand other people. Without communication it would be hard to understand each others cultures. Communication can be tricky. One person may not understand what another person means. This can lead to misunderstandings and complications.

Tell students that you want them to listen carefully as you tell them a story. Then tell you what the problem was.

Read the story.

After you have finished the story ask the students for their ideas. Ask them the questions at the bottom of the story and get their feed back.

Tell the students that today they are going to learn 1) why communication is important, 2) some of the different types of languages, and 3) how to use light or sound to transmit a message.

Ask the students if they can think of some languages that are used for communication. You might hint that you are looking for other then verbal languages. Some of the things that you are looking for are: Braille, sign, body language, (you can demonstrate this with arms crossed over chest or looking bored in your seat and ask the students what your body language says) pointing, scientific notation, chemistry, pennants (or flags), Morse code, and miming.

Ask the students to tell you why those languages are used. You want them to say that not everyone can use a verbal language.

Tell the students that Morse code can be used over a great distance and understood even if it is static instead of beeps.

Play the tape of the worst interference and ask the students if they can tell what is being said or if they can hear the dots and dashes. Then do that for the other two examples. The students should be able to understand the dots and dashes in at least two of the messages (if they have trouble with the hardest to understand one try playing it again after the clear one), but only be able to understand the words in the last example.

Explain the history of Morse code.

Tell the students that they are going to learn how to send and receive Morse code, but that they must first become familiar with how to translate Morse code.

Hand out the worksheet and go over the directions with the students. Do the first couple of examples on the overhead with them.

This is where a blank transparency and pens might help. You can elaborate with them or on the board.

Have the students trade worksheets and correct them as you go over the answers. Then trade them back for the next exercise.

Carefully read the directions to the teacher on the messages page.

Explain that they are going to work in groups of five to try to send and receive messages. They will each be given a part of a story and only together will the story make sense.

You should demonstrate how the telegraphs work (or the buzzers and flashlights.) The boxes work by shining the light through from the back side for short or long periods of time. And the toys or buzzers work by making short or long sounds.

You need to reinforce the idea that the telegraphs or buzzers and light boxes must be used by others. Count your supplies and then recount them when you collect them.

The students will need a pencil (or pen) and a message worksheet for the translations as well as the worksheet that they just finished.

If you opted for bribery, when you put together materials, you may give a piece of candy to the students when they bring you their stories. Let the students know about the reward ahead of time.

After you have passed out the message sheets, but before the students start to work (and sometimes it helps to do this before you divide the students into groups) read the directions at the top of the sheet.

When the groups are done you could choose to let one person from each group read the story that they came up with.

Collect the message worksheet, the first worksheet, and the story for grading.

Conclude by asking them which method was easier to understand and why. They can say either one, but the reason that some of them will say one or the other is because of learning styles. You may go into that if you want (the idea that everyone learns slightly differently, etc.)