SPY WEEK 2013 - UPDATE 3

Wow, what a day!

Today our youngsters had what may well be a once in a lifetime opportunity. We welcomed a genuine Enigma Machine..... 

At this point I'd like to thank the London Mathematical Society and our very own Knox Academy Support Group (KASG) for funding the Project but let me assure you that it was well worth it!

So, what did we learn and what did we do?

We started off with a presentation, from James Grime, about the history and mathematics of codes and code breaking, from ancient Greece to the present day, which included a demonstration of the enigma machine. The pupils were absolutely fascinated with the mechanisms and rotors, and the huge number of ways there are to link up pairs of letters on the machine (158 million million million by the way!). If you are interested, here is a nice website which explains many features of the Enigma machine. This particular Enigma machine is owned by science writer and broadcaster, Simon Singh (author of the best-selling 'Fermat's Last Theorem', 'The Code Book' and 'The Big Bang'). It was built in 1936 and used by the Germans in France (where it was found) to send coded messages during WWII. It is one of only a few dozen known to be around today.

 

Then later, in the workshops, it was the pupil's turn to be the code breakers! We looked at the following types of code:

Atbash Cipher

Homophonic Cipher

Pigpen Cipher

Caesar Shift

Railfence Cipher

Frequency Analysis

Playfair Cipher

Semaphore

Vigenère Cipher

Morse Code

 

A lot of patience, careful thought and at times a bit of imagination is required and our youngsters coped admirably with the challenge. Yet again, the enthusiasm and perseverance of our pupils shone through. I'm sure that the code making and breaking experience here will help our youngsters problem solving skills and logical reasoning.

One of the aims of today was to get as many young people interested in maths, science and history as possible. I would also describe the perception of 'Code Breaking' as a career as something that just happens in the movies - well not so. Hopefully today also illustrated its importance in our past, future and present. There are some interesting careers to be found, for example, on the GCHQ website (click here).

Yet again I'd like to stress that this week wouldn't have been the success that it has been without the enthusiasm and imagination shown by our teachers and pupils. I've loved hearing our youngsters talk about the 'Spy Week' movie (not to be missed!), their Spy training camp, solving crimes (Mr Redford and Ms Machen were chief suspects I believe!), sending coded messages in various forms and guises and, on the flip-side, learning to communicate in silent. In fact I'd like to finish with something our School Librarian Mr Plain told a Colleague today - he hasn't heard our pupils talk, on mass, about anything as much as this before.

C. Blair