Teach teens computing: Encryption and cryptography

Course description

This course explores encryption and cryptography. You'll learn about what encryption is and how it was used in the past, and use the Caesar and Vigenère ciphers. You'll also look at modern encryption, and investigate both symmetric and asymmetric encryption schemes. The course also takes a look at the future of encryption, and includes several practical encryption activities that are also appropriate to use in the classroom.

This course is designed for educators delivering lessons to learners aged 14 – 16 years old, and for anyone interested in learning about how encryption is used to communicate securely.

Learning objectives

After completing these 2 modules, you will be able to:

• Describe the general process of encryption and decryption

• Apply a Caesar cipher and a Vigenère cipher

• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different encryption algorithms

• Compare symmetric and asymmetric encryption

• Demonstrate methods of breaking simple encryption schemes

• Describe how encryption is used in the modern world, and some of the possible ethical implications of this