SAVY Saturday, Week 3, Cryptology (3rd-4th)
Your child will be coming home with their own copy of The Eleventh Hour, and I encourage you to talk deeply with them about how they solved the mystery, what clues led to the discovery, and what the “Congratulations” message revealed…another mystery to be solved (finding the mice)! Look through the reflection journals they have been keeping all week and discuss how their predictions changed and what red herrings threw them off the trail. They have a new task now–to locate 111 mice in the pages of the book. Don’t worry, the detective guide in the back of the book will help! This book was the highlight of our time together, and I hope it will become a family favorite for years to come. If your child was absent today, the SAVY office will be mailing your student’s folder and book to you. I’m so sorry to have missed so many sick ones today!
Our history minute took us back to touch on the Egyptian Coding and the Rosetta Stone. We watched a short video clip on the enigma machine used by the Germans in WWII. I encourage you to use the wealth of internet resources to continue studying more in-depth about the ways cryptology has practical applications. Here are a few websites to explore.
For more practice with Roman Numerals, I encourage you to look at these websites.
The culmination of our coding course today was a gallery walk where students were able to design and solve each other’s complex codes. After lunch, we worked on creating the codes, and we spent time gallery-walking those posters and trying to “escape” the course (like an escape room) by solving one or more of the codes in the room. Some students wrote simple, basic codes like reverse alphabet, while others used multiple code systems they’ve learned this week, such as a Roman numeral code combined with a Caesar Cipher for a two or even three-step solution. It was incredible to see how they could apply all they’ve learned while having fun doing it! It was so fantastic! Many of them were able to bring their posters home today. I applaud their great work and all they accomplished over the past three Saturdays. It was a joy and a privilege to get to know these bright young learners! To end our time together today, we spent some time discussing careers in cryptology.
Some questions you can ask your students:
- How did you create your codes for the gallery walk?
- What were some of the other codes you saw during the gallery walk?
- What role do codes and ciphers play not only in our past but also in our future?
- How can we find careers in this unique field?
If this is an area of interest for your students, I encourage you to find ways to feed that hunger to learn more. It was truly a pleasure watching them shine.