Fubswrorjb

Teri Schmidt
Matt Rose
K-12 Outreach

Center for Education and Research in Information

Assurance and Security, Purdue University
Overview
 What is cryptology?

 Why should we care about it?

 Some cryptology basics

 How can we incorporate it into the curriculum?

What is cryptology?

CRYPTOLOGY
The study of enciphering and deciphering
messages

CRYPTANALYSIS
CRYPTOGRAPHY
The breaking of a
The making of a cipher
cipher system
system (enciphering of a
(deciphering of a
message)
message)

STEGANOGRAPHY=Hiding the actual existence of the message (invisible

ink, hiding messages in art, etc.)
Why should we care about
cryptology?
 Natural curiosity about secrets

 We encounter its use every day

• Email
• ATM
• Credit cards
• E-commerce
• Movies, books

 Exciting, interdisciplinary
topic
Some cryptology basics:

Terms
Cryptography

Cipher=method of
hiding the
message
Plaintext=r Key=shared Ciphertext=e
eadable information that ncoded
message allows the message
message to be
encyrpted or
enciphered

Cryptanalysis
Some cryptology basics:
Example=A cipher that is monalphabetic,
substitution and shift
Cryptography

Cipher=SHIFT
EACH LETTER
A CERTAIN
Plaintext= NUMBER OF
SPACES Ciphertext=
CRYPTOLOGY FUBSWRORJB
Key=3 SPACES
FORWARD

Cryptanalysis
Incorporating cryptology into
the K-12 curriculum
Two methods:

 Interdisciplinary projects/units/adventures
Benefits:
• Connections between disciplines
• Applications to real life
• Fun and motivating

 Lessons/activities within a single discipline to teach or reinforce

concepts
Benefits:
• Applications to real life
• Can help to make concepts easier to remember
• Fun and motivating
Incorporating cryptology into the K-12 curriculum:

Social Studies
History: have students research the historical uses of cryptography
• Sparta, 500 B.C.
• Caesar cipher, 50 B.C.
• Jefferson’s wheel cipher, 1790
• Revolutionary war
• Slave quilts, early and mid-1800s
• Decryption of Zimmermann Telegram and WWI
• Capturing rumrunners
• WWII (Japanese “Purple”, German “Enigma”, Navajo code talkers)
• Cuban Missle crisis
• Korean and Vietnam wars

Civics and government: have students investigate the legal,

governmental, and ethical issues surrounding cryptography
Incorporating cryptology into the K-12 curriculum:

English
 Have students write research papers about the past and present uses of
cryptography

 Incorporate vocabulary words into cryptography activities

 Use cryptography to explore the development of linguistics and

communication in different cultures and times

 Have students write about a encryption or decryption technique that they

created or discovered
Incorporating cryptology into the K-12 curriculum:

Science
 Explore the make-up of invisible ink used in steganography
and have students make their own invisible ink

 Have students use and document their use of a systematic

scientific method for decrypting a message
Incorporating cryptology into the K-12 curriculum:

Mathematics
 Encourage the use of problem solving skills by having students encrypt and
decrypt messages

 Teach students about frequency distributions by investigating a simple

substitution cipher

 Introduce or reinforce the concept of a function and of function notation and

inverses of functions by investigating a shift cipher

 Introduce or reinforce the concept of a permutation by investigating a

transposition cipher

 Introduce or reinforce many other concepts including: probability, matrix

operations, modular arithmetic, cyclic groups, factorization and prime numbers,
graph theory, number theory
Questions?
Thank you!

Teri Schmidt
tmschmid@cerias.purdue.edu
(765) 496-6761

Matt Rose
mrose@cerias.purdue.edu
(765) 496-7710

http://cerias.purdue.edu/education/k-12/
Now it’s your turn!