In this video, Harley moves in with Harry and makes Harry's life miserable. Harley spies on Harry writing in his diary. When Harley "borrows" the diary, he finds it is written in a code using numbers. Harley figures out a pattern with numbers and letters and decodes the page to find it is a message for Harley saying it is time to move out.
Figure out the secret code using your problem-solving skills. This activity from Zoom focuses on your critical thinking and operational skills to solve the problem and find the pattern. This video can be used during a lesson on encryption and secret codes.
Make a coded message called a scytale message to send to a friend. This activity from Zoom focuses on your ability to follow directions and requires a cylinder. This learning activity can be used during a lesson on encryption.
As both Hacker and the CyberSquad go off in search of a giant cyber-slug, the kids realize that Hacker has a listening device that taps into their communications system. The kids decide to devise a secret code so they can send messages back and forth without hackers understanding what they are saying. The code involves numbers, which are associated with pictures, and it's used to send messages explaining where the CyberSquad should travel to find the cyber-slug. This video can be played during a lesson on encryption.
What is Cryptography? A story which takes us from Caesar to Claude Shannon. Created by Brit Cruise.
On the left side of the linked webpage, there are additional resources related to cryptology, including Caesar cipher, polyalphabetic cipher, and the Enigma machine.
By "programming" one another to draw pictures, students get an opportunity to experience some of the core concepts of programming in a fun and accessible way. The class will start by having students use symbols to instruct each other to color squares on graph paper in an effort to reproduce an existing picture. If there’s time, the lesson can conclude with images that the students create themselves.
The goal of this activity is to build critical-thinking skills and excitement for the course while introducing some of the fundamental programming concepts that will be used throughout the course. By introducing basic concepts like sequencing and algorithms to the class in an unplugged activity, students who are intimidated by computers can still build a foundation of understanding on these topics. In this lesson, students will learn how to develop an algorithm and encode it into a program.
Students will be able to:- reframe a sequence of steps as an encoded program.- explain the constraints of translating problems from human language to machine language.
Note: You will need to create a free account on code.org before you can view this resource.
This activity will begin with a short lesson on debugging and persistence and then will quickly move to a race against the clock as students break into teams and work together to write a program one instruction at a time.
Teamwork is very important in computer science. Teams write and debug code with each other, instead of working as individuals. In this lesson, students will learn to work together while being as efficient as possible.
This activity also provides a sense of urgency that will teach students to balance their time carefully and avoid mistakes without falling too far behind. This experience can be stressful (which is expected)! Make sure you provide students with the tools to deal with potential frustration.
Students will be able to:- define ideas using code and symbols.- verify work done by teammates.- identify signs of frustration.
Though many people think of binary as strictly zeros and ones, students will be introduced to the idea that information can be represented in a variety of binary options. This lesson takes that concept one step further as it illustrates how a computer can store even more complex information (such as images and colors) in binary, as well.
In this lesson, students will learn how information is represented in a way that a computer can interpret and store it. When learning binary, students will have the opportunity to write code and share it with peers to view as images. This can then be related back to how computers read a program, translate it to binary, use the information in some way, then reply back in a way humans can understand. For example, when we type a sentence into a document then press "save", a computer translates the sentence into binary, stores the information, then posts a message indicating the document has been stored.
Students will be able to:- identify methods for encoding images into binary.- relate images to a peer using binary encoding.- reproduce an image, based on binary code.
This series of online lessons will have students learning to make images using on and off. This will help reinforce the fact that computers can do a multitude of things with 0s and 1s.
Students will be able to:- create pictures using unique combinations of on and off.- identify repeated sequences and break long codes up into smaller chunks that can be looped.- utilize loops and binary code to recreate provided images.
