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Ri Maths Masterclass Cryptography
I led a session in Crytography alongside Max Williams for the Royal Insitituion series of Maths Masterclasses.
Slides used here.
Workbook here.
To make the session a bit more engaging, I setup several spreadsheets that I used to mail merge individual workbooks so each one was unique. This led to an activity on public key crytography.
The lesson plan went as follows:
Cryptography Masterclass Plan
Starter Activity Explanation (2min)
Freddie will explain the starter activity that is enclosed on the front of each worksheet.
Background into Cryptography (3min)
Max and Freddie will talk about the background behind cryptography. Including Alan Turing and Bletchley Park
An introduction to the Caesar Cipher, one of the most well known ciphers, however it has quite a few weaknesses and is no longer used today.
Please help construct the caesar cipher wheels and help them solve the message in the booklet.
Maths of Caesar and Alphabet Table (3min)
Freddie will explain how we can use maths to help us solve the caesar cipher in terms of shifting letters by converting them to integers and vice versa. Help explain how we convert the numbers back and forth.
Freddie and Max will explain how modulus works and how we can use it with our integer alphabet. Please help explain the concept to those unsure, they will complete the exercise in the booklet.
Talking about checksums and UPC codes. The UPC code activity requires you to verify the answers using either a UV torch or the sheet attached.
Max will talk about the Affine Cipher and run an activity within the booklet.
Public Key Cryptography (8min)
Freddie will talk about the uses of Public Key Cryptography, a relatively new cryptography concept that is used heavily in many ciphers today including HTTPS.
There is an activity where they have to use the unique code in their workbook to solve a puzzle word and meet with others listed on the sheet with the same message id to fill out a message. See sheet attached.
There is an activity where they have to use the unique code in their workbook to solve a puzzle word and meet with others listed on the sheet with the same message id to fill out a message. See sheet attached.