Year 10 crack the code to become winners at Newman cyber day
12 July 2022
"Priory pupils were amazing in showing off their code breaking skills especially as they were competing against three other schools", says Mrs Qadri, Head of ICT & Computing.
The Year 10 GCSE Computer Science pupils took part in a cyber themed workshop/escape room event at Cardinal Newman College on Monday.
The college had organised for Tablet Academy to set up the scenario for the activities. Students were provided with an opportunity to learn more about cryptography and the mathematics behind it. It allowed them to develop and show off their code-cracking skills in a unique escape room environment.
The event also supported the skills pupils have learnt in their GCSE Computer Science lessons.
During the cyber-themed workshop, pupils were ‘locked’ into a crisis centre and had to work together, against the clock, to solve a series of cryptic clues in order to prevent a cyber-attack from being released upon the nation’s infrastructure and return control of the RAF’s ground observation satellite Carbonite 2. Only once the virus is stopped can they leave their posts!
The 'Cyber Security Crisis Activity' was an off-shoot of the popular ‘escape room’ model in which students must solve clues in order to open physical locks and/or unlock password-protected files. The day consisted of a hypothetical cyber attack and clues to help the pupils crack the codes.
Students were split up into small groups and assigned a laptop which was password protected. They were given a few clues to try and work out what the password was. Pupils used the Caesar Cipher wheel to work out a message and then went onto using a tape measure with letters on it to find out the password.
A USB stick with a lot of files with text and images was provided to the students to use with the laptop which the students had to search through to find hidden messages.
Students had to edit and manipulate an audio file to find a secret message and then change the colour and brightness on an image to find a hidden sentence in an image.
Students then had to open an image in a program and link the numbers with elements on a science periodic table to find the final clue to use the first three numbers of a suspect’s national number. Those three numbers were crucial to open a brief case and win the task.
Sam H said, "It was an interesting experience, the puzzles were hard but they were also fun to figure out the solutions and when we did figure it out it was relieving to say the least. The puzzles needed critical thinking, puzzle solving, teamwork and knowledge of different programs. All in all it was hard to work, but in general fun to take part in."
Chloe Q enjoyed her experience and said "We were assigned to crack many codes which then lead us to unlocking the briefcase. We needed a couple of clues for our group but the majority we managed to work out ourselves."
Well done to the winning team!
Elinila A, Harvey B-S, Lucas C, Jamie E, Hollie H, Samuel H, Jamal J, Koushal K, Leo K, Chloe Q, Leo S, Jack W, Isaac Y, Noah Y
