Junior School Code Breaking
26 Feb 2010
Junior School pupils had a ’cracking’ time learning about the history of code breaking through the ages and the famous Enigma machine in a first-ever field trip and video conference.
The 53 boys and girls from Year 6 created ‘Powerpoint & Publisher’ projects based on their visit to Bletchley Park National Code Centre and their subsequent code breaking research, and presented these via a direct video link to Cambridge University.
They also picked up the microphone during the video conference to put questions to Cambridge mathematician Dr James Grimes.
Following an introductory video conference at the school, the 10-11 year olds spent a morning at Bletchley Park learning how the Allies cracked the coded military messages from the Enigma machines used by the Germans during World War Two.
They also toured the huts where the code breaking took place and saw a replica of the Bombe – the machine used to help break the Enigma codes - and a working replica of the first computer, Colossus, as well as a working Enigma machine.
The party also had the chance to learn about life on the ‘home front’ by speaking with a wartime evacuee.
Stephen Mitchell, Mathematics Co-ordinator for Solihull Junior School, said: “Our first-ever visit to Bletchley Park really brought mathematics and history to life for our pupils. It inspired them to look at a variety of codes and ciphers and create codes of their own for others to try to decipher.
“They were also thrilled to be able present their findings and research ‘interactively’ with Cambridge University in the second part of our two-part videoconference.”
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