Dec 272008

This project could be worked on for three days.

OK – now this may sound a little wacky.

Spy Math: a cryptology project?

Divide your students into teams and have each team devise a mathematically based encryption scheme.

Discuss real-life application of cryptology (MATH!).

Provide some examples at the beginning – from simple to a bit more complex. Something like an algebraic function that will translate letters into numeric code.

Simple example:
In the formula, let any letter be represented by A.
Let each letter have a number (e.g. a = 1, b = 2 and so on)

Simple encryption algorithm: A = A + 1

Give the teams a day or so to devise their algorithm, create a silly message and then the "opposing" teams have to try and break their code!

7-16-16-5 10-5-6-2?

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One Comments to “Any Ideas for an Educational and Fun Math Project for a Group of 5th to 8th Graders?”

  1. ysn - yourstudentnews says:

    OK – now this may sound a little wacky.

    Spy Math: a cryptology project?

    Divide your students into teams and have each team devise a mathematically based encryption scheme.

    Discuss real-life application of cryptology (MATH!).

    Provide some examples at the beginning – from simple to a bit more complex. Something like an algebraic function that will translate letters into numeric code.

    Simple example:
    In the formula, let any letter be represented by A.
    Let each letter have a number (e.g. a = 1, b = 2 and so on)

    Simple encryption algorithm: A = A + 1

    Give the teams a day or so to devise their algorithm, create a silly message and then the "opposing" teams have to try and break their code!

    7-16-16-5 10-5-6-2?
    References :

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