I learned about Ramsay Nasser and Kaho Abe‘s Slowest Computer on Earth activity at a workshop in 2016. Since then, I’ve been excited to try it out with students, and today was the day! The Math Department leads an assembly for the girls every year, and this year I suggested doing the Slowest Computer activity. Maggie Maluf (Chair of the Department) purchased dual-sided chips, Karl Paranya created a paper template of rows and columns, and everyone helped facilitate the groups today. Girls were divided in their Houses which included students in Class V, VI, VII, and VIII. The older girls had an iPad handy, and used this to access PDFs of the instructions for four different activities: Diagonal line, Intersecting diagonal lines (X), a Minecraft Creeper, and a Circle. These PDF’s can be found on Ramsey’s Sponge Site which digitally mimics the activity.
Here’s a write-up up my notes from 2016 when I learned about the activity:
https://karenblumberg.wordpress.com/2016/11/07/slowest-computer/
Here’s a modified write-up of the World’s Slowest Computer activity via the Computer Science for All initiative:
https://blueprint.cs4all.nyc/units/50/
Here’s a video I made with some of some girls to explain the instructions:
Karen Blumberg 