Thinking Secrets, Codes, & Ciphers

Understand basics of cryptography – history, interesting facts, and its application in securing various physical, and virtual communications.

Learn basics of encryption (encryption keys, encryption algorithm, properties of cipher text) and become familiar with popular encryption and encoding mechansims)

Evaluate the security of a given messaging system/protocol by analyzing the properties of ciphers and its robustness against different attack vectors.

Develop fluency with encrypting and decrypting ciphers, analyzing cipher text, by engaging in many interactive, hands-on learning exercises.

Foster positive interactions, brainstorming, and collaboration among peers

Engage students’ multiple intelligences and develop multifaceted thinking acumen by exposing them to a variety of puzzles, problems and just for fun thinking exercises, stretching, and flexing their thinking muscles

Students learn the basics of cryptography in the first couple of weeks – they learn key definitions, history, identify and analyse applications of cryptography in an engaging way – through instructor lectures, interactive learning exercises, and active discussions.

In the following weeks, students study various encryption methods, understand the difference between codes and ciphers, understand hashing and encoding, properties of strong encryption schemes, methods to defeat, or by pass encryption systems, attack vectors and so on topics using hands-on learning exercises.

Students develop greater fluency with encryption, cipher analysis, hashing methods etc as they engage in creating their own secret communication exercises, and challenge themselves to build stronger and hard to break messaging systems. Students are constantly interacting, and collaborating with peers in class – as they brainstorm, discuss, evaluate, debug, and improvise their secret messaging schemes. We compliment the structured learning exercises with free-flow impromptu games and activities, where learners automatically apply their learnings through the act of playing & engaging in activities.

Youngsters draw inspiration from each other, as they engage in collaborative problem solving, and validate each others’ ideas and solutions in our positive, fun and interactive classrooms. Most importantly, students develop foundational understanding of cryptography, and its applications, and engage their critical thinking muscles in novel ways.

Our teachers are highly qualified, well trained, and experienced, subject matter experts, with exceptional ability to interact, and engage young students online

55 minutes per class once or twice a week, and an estimated 30 minutes to 2 hour per week outside of class for home work

10-20 minutes daily practice  homework. Homework is optional, students are encouraged to practice daily, post their work, and reach out to the instructor for questions/clarifications.

Rough notebook or paper, pencils, colors etc. Students will be notified ahead of class when additional items are needed for class activity

Reference exercises, resources, and other relevant information will be provided & updated regularly to reinforce learning with ongoing practice

Formative assessment based on student’s performance, and participation in class activities, and the ideas they come up with, will be provided at the end of the session.