8-10 yrs old
11-13 yrs old
14-18 yrs old
18+ yrs old
Computer Science
Digital Literacy
Math & Economics
Students must decipher messages to reveal codes that enable them to progress through a series of locked rooms in Minecraft.
May 14, 2020
Tablet Academy Refresh Programme
Lesson Plan
World File
Secret of Cipher Cove world file
Walkthrough
Walkthrough presentation with answers for the teacher
Presentation
Sets the scene and introduces students to different types of ciphers
Breakout is an off-shoot of the popular escape room game in which players are willingly locked in a room and, by searching for clues and completing a series of challenges, race against time to ‘break out’. Using OneNote, students decipher messages to reveal codes that enable them to progress through a series of locked rooms in Minecraft.
Starter (10 mins)
To begin the lesson, load The Secret of Cipher Cove PowerPoint presentation and go through the example ciphers with the class.
Challenge 1 The Secret of Cipher Cove (30 mins)
Split the class into small groups and ask them to load Minecraft Education Edition on their devices and open the Secret of Cipher Cove map. Challenge students to find the secret base by solving the clues in the map. Encourage students to use the OneNote, provided, to help them complete the challenge.
Plenary ( mins)
In the final part of the lesson, ask a member from each team to describe one of the ciphers they encountered in the game and explain how they were able to solve it.
Ask students why they think we need to encrypt information. Try to draw out answers such as: ‘To secure sensitive data such as credit card details when submitting them through websites’ or ‘To protect personal data when storing / transmitting via the web’ etc.
• Were the students able to correctly decode the ciphertext for each challenge?
• Were the students able to explain how a Caesar Shift cipher works?
• Were students able to create their own coded message using a simple substitution or transposition cipher?
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