Cipher Challenge
Suitable for: years 8 – 10
Student number: up to 36
Workshop length: 1.5 hours
Students imagine they are in enemy territory and need to send a message across a river. They have limited equipment available and must make a communications tower that will be higher than the surrounding trees. The workshop highlights the work of engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists and scientists both past and present in the field from Bletchley park to GCHQ.
Students use their mathematics skills to design a coding system to send a message. They must decide how they will transmit their code and how they will construct their communications tower. This workshop allows students to deploy skills in a fun and engaging way that they would normally develop in mathematics, science (physics) and D&T.
STEMworks will provide all materials for the workshop. The workshop can be run in a classroom.
