American performer Josephine Baker used her star-status access to spy for the Allies in WWII and convey information to the Allies by using invisible ink on her sheet music. We’ll look at a few methods that can be used to hide messages “in plain sight”?
Material Type: Lesson
During WWII the Marines enlisted Navajo code talkers to send messages. The Navajo language is not written down and is very difficult for non-native speakers to speak and understand. The Marines started with 29 Navajo men for this project. Their code became unbreakable and fast. They could decode 3 lines of English in 20 seconds versus the normal 30 minutes.In this lesson students will hear audio of spoken Navajo language. They will make predictions on what language they think is being spoken. After learning the language they will research the Navajo code breakers. Students will then use the Navajo dictionary to practice creating and deciphering messages. Students will then be able to make connections to cybersecurity.
Material Type: Lesson
Women code-breakers changed the course of WWII by cracking Japanese codes that revealed the movements of people and supplies in the Pacific Islands. In this lesson, students will learn how specific information discovered led to a turning point when cryptographers were able to pinpoint the plans of the Pearl Harbor Attack’s “architect”, Admiral Yamomoto.Students will examine videos and articles to find out more about this episode in history. In pairs or small groups, they’ll look at the US Post Office’s newly revealed stamp commemorating it. They’ll identify what they think are the pros and cons of the stamp and then design their own.
Material Type: Lesson
There were many black women who worked as code breakers at Arlington Hall during World War II, including Elsie Scott, Sue Bailey Thurman, and Genevieve Collins. These women faced significant challenges and discrimination due to their race and gender, but they made significant contributions to the war effort through their work as code breakers.
Material Type: Lesson
This cipher was invented for the Hebrew alphabet, but it can work with any alphabet. Many people believe it was used in the Bible and is older than Hieroglyphics! It was later adopted by other cultures, such as the Greeks and Romans, and used to encode messages in their respective languages. This lesson leads students the basics of cryptography.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
During the American Revolution, the Patriots relied on sending coded messages to prevent the British from understanding the actions of the Continental Army. George Washington’s army used this cipher– though it is not a very secure system in its original form. The Patriots adapted it by using a randomized arrangement of the alphabet. This cipher was also used to some extent during the US Civil War.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students will learn about Mask Letters and their use in the Revolutionary War, then they will make masks and messages of their own and discuss the pros and cons of this method of sending and receiving secret messages.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students will learn about one of the most significant and successful spy rings in American History. They will also actually conduct some of the same techniques and demonstrate them to the rest of the class.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this lesson students will learn how enslaved people used lyrics in songs to help them follow the path to freedom, in the time period before and during the Civil War.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This breakout activity provides teachers and students an interactive way to demonstrate their learning about cryptography, code-breaking, and historic ciphers. Clues are provided, along with additional hints you can choose to provide to students so that students solve ciphers and learn what time their army is planning to raid the enemy camp.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students will examine the history and culture of the Choctaw Native Americans, as well as the story of the Code Talkers in WW1, in order to memorialize one of the Choctaw Code Talkers.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
See computer science integration opportunities in middle school history in this crosswalk of the two disciplines.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
These modules are designed to help you get familiar with Python while exploring interactive narrative design, where we put together stories that leave space for the reader to explore, make choices, and engage with the events of the story in a participatory way. Each module in this course follows the same format:Backstory: Unpack the context around the module, set up catalyzing questions to guide the inquiry throughout the module, and establish goals and objectives for your engagement with the moduleGuided Inquiry: Step through a sequence of tutorials and hands-on activities designed to help you learn the basic ideas presented in the modulesPrompt: A tightly-bounded, focused activity designed to facilitate sustained engagement with the ideas presented in the moduleCatalyzing Questions: A series of questions intended to provoke reflection & to put the module’s content in contextEach module is intended to support between 30 and 60 minutes of focused, sustained engagement. You may find it suits you to leave the module in the middle and return to your work; that’s totally fine. Work at your own pace, and don’t hesitate to reach out to your facilitators if you run into any problems.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Students will apply their knowledge of the characteristics of the five major regions to create if-statements. As a warm-up students will complete a table using IF statements.During student-facing project, students will:Create 2-3 additional variables within the conditions chart that will direct the flow to determine the correct region.Record responses provided by their partner on an excel spreadsheet.Students will use responses provided to draw a conclusion of which region their partner is “located”.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this activity students will analyze various forms of primary sources, images and text, based on differing accounts of the Boston Massacre. Students will use this information to construct a historically accurate timeline (story) using the website twinery.org.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students will work with a partner to pair-program a comparison of two different leaders and their role in the Civil War (Abraham Lincoln/Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant/Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson/Frederick Douglass) using Twinery.org. Their product must also incorporate and attribute existing digital media (i.e.images). Students will then find a partner group that selected different figures and peer review their Twine product with emphasis on usability, content, language, user perspective, image layout/attribution and ease of use. The feedback given must be addressed and incorporated. Students will then complete a Partner Evaluation form to review their experience working with pair programming.This lesson may need to be split across two class periods.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students will organize and visualize data from indentured contract databases from virtualjamestown.org in order to come to some conclusions about the characteristics of indentured servants in early colonial America. They will make specific decisions about how to organize the data and how to best visualize the data. They will then use the data to draw conclusions about indentured servants in early colonial Virginia, culminating in a creative journal entry assignment. Additional lessons can have students search for and analyze data on the enslaved Africans of early colonial Virginia in order to compare and contrast the two forms of labor in colonial Virginia.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students will sort and analyze data about a historical figure from the American Revolution then create a desk depicting the accomplishments, life events and/or experiences, positive and negative of the historical figure of that individual. Students will work in heterogeneous groups on a project where they sort data and analyze data about a historical figure during the American Revolution. Students will use the data collected to create a depiction of the historical figure’s desk.
Material Type: Lesson
