Enigma 2022

 

Last year I ran a course called Enigma in the local middle school's after school program.  It was made up as we went along and featured code breaking, minor spy craft, gps tracking and a few side orders of linguistics and such.  The students did well and then used what they learned to cook up a Challenge that was taken on by a recruited team of Staff All Stars.  The teachers and administrators did pretty well but to be fair the students were there to help out.

Although done partly for my amusement there are a couple of serious points to this nonsense.  One, it is a good training ground for future problem solvers on the high school robotics team.  And more generally it is a much needed exercise in actually using their brains.  Too often kids just blindly accept what teachers or peers say, or assume that Wikipedia or Youtube know all.  They. Do. Not.  Lets learn some critical thinking in the classic sense of the word.

To that end I'll be using some of the same material this time around and will intentionally build in errors.  Hey, I'll be straight with them.  On day one I will tell them that I am the sort of instructor who might mislead them just to see if they catch me at it....and if they have the confidence in their answers to tell me when they think they are right and I am wrong.

Because the invited Staff All Stars will probably have similar membership and might remember  things from last year, and also because they seem the sort to consult the internet looking for an edge, I will not give detailed answers this year.  Nah.  I'll post modified versions of the weekly challenges with just enough misdirection to keep the Staff honest if they are playing along at home.

It will be fun.  And easy.  Trust me.