Just when they think they have solved the mystery, there is always more to see. Your child will be coming home with their own copy of The Eleventh Hour today, 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 for many of them this week.

Our history minute moved from the past to the future today. After a brief look at the Enigma Machine of WWII, we looked at Careers in Cryptology. 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? Talk to your students about what they learned in class.

Our math time today focused on bringing it all together by thinking about all of the number systems we’ve studied this week: Egyptian, Roman Numerals, and Binary Base Two. They completed some Binary Code Puzzlers and discussed all that we’ve learned. As our final activity, we looked at the imaginary system from “Trugo.” This required students to synthesize all we’ve learned about place value and bases this week. It was a great way to end our time together.

The culmination of our coding course today was a gallery walk where students designed and solved each other’s complex codes. We worked just after lunch on creating the codes, and at the end of the day, 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, like a math base two binary 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! I applaud their great work and accomplishments this week. It was a joy and privilege to get to know these bright young learners and future cryptologists! We hope to see them in future PTY classes!