9652 Views (as of 05/2023)
Icon for: Amanda Sopko

AMANDA SOPKO

Indian Hill Middle School

The Mathematics of Cryptography and Cyber-Security, A Challenge Based Learnin...

NSF Awards: 1404766

2016 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades 6-8

The mathematics unit highlighted in this video was created to build student interest in cryptography through realistic and engaging activities. A series of hands-on activities demonstrate important cryptographic systems and protocols. Students were introduced to protocols and schemes such as Diffie-Hellman in order to understanding present day encryption and decryption. It is important that students understand how these protocols work. As a result, the final challenge in this unit requires students to develop a set of protocols to successfully transmit coins without interception. The strategies used to increase student interest provided them the opportunity to discuss and use present-day cryptographic systems as well as experiment with their own designed protocols making cryptography accessible to middle school students.

This video has had approximately 1,100 visits by 1,049 visitors from 276 unique locations. It has been played 460 times as of 05/2023.
Click to See Activity Worldwide
Map reflects activity with this presentation from the NSF 2016 STEM For All Video Showcase website, as well as the STEM For All Multiplex website.
Based on periodically updated Google Analytics data. This is intended to show usage trends but may not capture all activity from every visitor.
show more
Discussion from the NSF 2016 STEM For All Video Showcase (6 posts)
  • Icon for: Jennifer Knudsen

    Jennifer Knudsen

    Senior Mathematics Educator
    May 17, 2016 | 09:41 a.m.

    this is great! Is it possible to see the student blogs?

  • Icon for: Pati Ruiz

    Pati Ruiz

    Facilitator
    Dean of Studies
    May 17, 2016 | 11:09 a.m.

    Secrets seem like a great hook for students to learn about cryptography. Secretly passing messages and learning about cryptography through a game (final challenge) seems like a great approach!

    What does the end of this lesson look like? Is there a competition or a showcase with other students or adults in the community? Is there a metacognitive piece at the end – in addition to the ones you discuss in the video? There is a lot of learning going on, how are you capturing it – is this all done on the blog and in their notebooks?

  • Icon for: Jenna Marks

    Jenna Marks

    Facilitator
    Doctoral Student in Cognitive Studies in Education
    May 17, 2016 | 08:06 p.m.

    This answers the question I posed in another video your team (or a related team at Cincinnati) posted about high school cryptography (http://stemforall2016.videohall.com/presentatio...), which was how could this be scaled to middle school. I think you’ve done an excellent job of taking a complex topic and making it palpable to such a young audience.

    Have you done any quantitative or qualitative analysis of student motivation during and after these tasks? For example, I would be interested to see how this unit affects engagement in the math classroom.

  • Icon for: Avron Barr

    Avron Barr

    Facilitator
    Consultant
    May 18, 2016 | 09:45 a.m.

    Interesting project. Great video. Thanks Amanda. You introduced a lot of concepts, besides cryptography. How long was this unit? How many students? Any plans to continue this work?

  • Kevin Adams

    Guest
    May 22, 2016 | 12:03 p.m.

    Hello,

    What a wonderfully interesting project! I was wondering if you had any specific videos that you use with the students that gives them a historical perspective and a modern day perspective.

  • Icon for: Andrew Izsak

    Andrew Izsak

    Professor
    May 23, 2016 | 02:45 a.m.

    Hi Amanda,

    What an interesting project. I was wondering what main math ideas were developed in the project. There was mention of modular arithmetic. Bar codes are another interesting application of modular arithmetic.

    Andrew

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.