Statistics and Cryptography - History of STEM practicals - Crack the Code

Practical 8 in the History in STEM practical series.
In this activity, you will be looking into the ancient world of encrypted messages. Starting with the simple Caesar Cipher, and moving through the ages, students will have the chance to crack the codes using statistical analysis of a given text, having them use patterns in grammar and frequency of words as a guide (an added cross-curriculum benefit), before perhaps making their own coded messages. This is the best way to incorporate percentages, bar charts, data analysis into a lesson, that will have the kids talking about it for years to come.

More about the History in STEM practical Series
This series is designed to bring quality cross-curricula material to STEM subjects, that help students to explore and discover phenomena normally taught, while getting a glimpse into the history of its development.
In addition, a number of the practicals give the students the opportunity to play “Mythbusters”, looking at a number of different methods and having to reason why one or the other was the more likely or useful method.
From Ancient Greece to Vikings, China to the Golden age of the Muslim empire and beyond to India, the series takes a look at some of the most important STEM achievements throughout history.
There is a plan for 40 of these such practicals in this series, so, if you liked this one, consider looking at some of the others, or check out some of the bundles available.

Other practicals in the series:

• Similar Triangles - History of STEM practicals - How Far Is That Boat?
• Water Alarm Clock - History of STEM practicals - Pressure and Displacement
• Viking Sunstones - History of STEM practicals - Refraction and Birefringence
• Pythagoras’ Cup - History of STEM practicals - Siphon
• Archimedes’ Eureka - History of STEM practicals - Density
• Measuring the World - History of STEM Practicals - Circumference of Circles
• Chemical Reactions - History of STEM practicals - Invisible Ink Practical
• Statistics and Cryptography - History of STEM practicals - Crack the Code