Beyond Binary: Building Blocks of Digital Decisions
Building the integrated circuitCopyright Jennifer Stammen
Students work as teams of engineers to design solutions to one of six real-world problems by creating functional logic gates. They learn how transistors serve as the fundamental hardware that allows computational logic to produce outcomes based on inputs, and apply this knowledge by building their own gates on notecards using transistors, resistors, copper tape, masking tape, LEDs, and 9V batteries. Students plan and test their designs using truth tables, integrate individual gates into Boolean circuits, and write corresponding Boolean expressions. Along the way, they engineer compact circuit pathways, troubleshoot issues such as short circuits, and explore vertical layering and vias, similar to microchip and PCB design.
Computer engineers use transistors as the building blocks of computer chips. These transistors function as on/off switches, producing the zeros and ones of binary logic. Engineers arrange transistors to create logic gates, such as AND, OR, and NOT gates, and then combine these gates into more complex circuits capable of performing calculations and storing information. Advances in engineering have made it possible to fit billions of transistors onto a single 100 mm² chip.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain how transistors function as electronic switches and serve as the fundamental building blocks of computer chips.
- Describe the flow of electricity through a logic gate circuit in its different states.
- Identify and interpret the behavior of basic logic gates (AND, OR, and NOT) using truth tables.
- Combine multiple logic gates into a functional system that solves a real-world design problem.