1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.
2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to
4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.
1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.
2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.
3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!
4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.
Question | Answer |
| 1. Welcome to our class. I'm Secret Agent 110 and the class want to give you an introduction to this course. Cryptography is the discipline of using codes and ciphers to encrypt a message and make it unreadable unless the recipient knows the secret to decrypt it. Encryption has been used for many thousands of years. Using a decoding scanner device, explore the classroom to appreciate the ways in which codes and code breaking have impacted history, technology, and culture—and ways they continue to do so. The QR Codes are displayed near examples of related topics. Think of a spy disguise and scan the QR Codes with your spy device. | Cryptography | 2. A simple cipher is when one letter of a text is replaced with another letter, like a = z. Simple ciphers where introduced in the 1600's. They are important for spies and people who were in conflict, if an enemy knew what their opponent was saying there would be many wars that would have lasted for years and years. This closely related to math because you have to find the mode of the numbers and then use frequency to help identify where to start deciphering the code. | Simple Cipher | 3. A Caesar cipher is a substitution cipher used and discover by Julius Caesar around 1915. It was used for the Roman army to send secret codes to each other. This is closely relates math because they used modular arithmetic to create the cipher. | Caesar Cipher | 4. An Enigma machine, invented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius in Berlin, was used to distribute messages during in WWII. Think of it as the original code-breaking computer. What made it sophisticated was that each time the code was used, it changed. The wiring from the letter pressed, to the cipher value, was set to a wheel. The wheel was on a rotor that rotated after each cipher. This enabled 26 possibilities to be used. By adding more wheels and rotors, additional possibilities occurred. This related to math because you have determine how many codes are possible by using permutations. | Enigma machine | 5. In binary code the characters 1 and 0 are only used. These two characters are basically yes and no. 8 digits represent every letter or number. Gottfried Leibniz first invented the binary number system back around 1679. They are important because they allow computers to and electronics to read barcodes and the codes in the systems. This is related to math and technology because binary codes are used with computers and scanners to read messages and codes given off by the system. It's related to math because if you use 2^n then you can figure out some of the ways to make the code. | Binary Codes | 6. Younger children tend to ask you many questions such as “What is this?” or “How does this work?” As a person with knowledge you may find it annoying to answer these questions that have simple solutions. But what happens when you don’t know the answer, who do you turn to? I know you see those strips of dark and light lines on your favorite bag of chips. You ask yourself “What are these for?” Well with the help of my wonderful teacher Mrs. AJ I am informed to tell you the intention of bar codes. A bar code (often seen as a single word, barcode) is the small image of lines (bars) and spaces that is affixed to retail store items, identification cards, and postal mail to identify a particular product number, person, or location.. (according to an online source).They are read with a barcode reader. The reader uses laser beams to translate digital data. Barcode readers can be found in many stores such as Walgreens or Wal-Mart. | Binary Codes | 7. The first barcodes were used at a supermarket in Troy, OH, in 1974, and the scanners that read the barcode were considered large, loud, and clumsy. The very first item scanned was a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum. Because computers cannot read barcodes, they require an adapter called a "Barcode Reader" kit to scan products. The kit usually consists of a scanner, a decoder, and a cable that connects to a computer, cash register, or other computer embedded product. The scanner "reads" the barcodes -- looking at both the black lines and the size and spacing of blank space between bars. The decoder checks the last number, and transmits the corresponding information about the item to the computer in text format. Because computers cannot read barcodes, they require an adapter called a "Barcode Reader" kit to scan products. The kit usually consists of a scanner, a decoder, and a cable that connects to a computer, cash register, or other computer embedded product. The scanner "reads" the barcodes -- looking at both the black lines and the size and spacing of blank space between bars. The decoder checks the last number, and transmits the corresponding information about the item to the computer in text format.Thanks for breaking the code. We hope you enjoyed our presentations. | Thank |
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