CRYPTOGRAPHY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AN EXTRACURRICULAR LEARNING PLACE

Nadine Bergner, Jan Holz, Ulrik Schroeder

2012

Abstract

In order to inspire middle school students for computer science topics we developed a two-day-course about cryptography. Thereby we try to counteract the relatively low interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) topics by offering engaging insights into computer science. This course is one of several workshops within our extracurricular learning place for computer science called InfoSphere. The fundamental idea of the presented workshop is to provide a first insight into the world of cryptography for middle school students. During the course groups of three to five students discover the four different cryptographic methods Skytale, Fleißner Template, Caesar Encryption and Vigenère Encryption on their own. We designed the course according to the didactic principle of exploratory learning, so the participants can learn action-oriented and at their individual learning rate. In conclusion we discuss the results of a first evaluation with a test group of 23 students (17 girls and six boys).

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Bergner N., Holz J. and Schroeder U. (2012). CRYPTOGRAPHY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AN EXTRACURRICULAR LEARNING PLACE . In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-8565-07-5, pages 265-270. DOI: 10.5220/0003920002650270

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu12,
author={Nadine Bergner and Jan Holz and Ulrik Schroeder},
title={CRYPTOGRAPHY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AN EXTRACURRICULAR LEARNING PLACE},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2012},
pages={265-270},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003920002650270},
isbn={978-989-8565-07-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - CRYPTOGRAPHY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AN EXTRACURRICULAR LEARNING PLACE
SN - 978-989-8565-07-5
AU - Bergner N.
AU - Holz J.
AU - Schroeder U.
PY - 2012
SP - 265
EP - 270
DO - 10.5220/0003920002650270