Exploratorium
Secret Codon - Write a Message in DNA
String up a message. Pupils string together colored beads to code a word or short phrase. Each color represents one of the four DNA bases. Using a combination of three bases, learners create an amino acid that stand for each letter of...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Binary Basics
Back to the (binary) basics. The resource provides a simple overview of binary code and gives two different activities to introduce it to elementary and middle school learners. Classmates write and decode messages to each other in binary...
Curated OER
Secret Messages
Students research Egyptian hieroglyphics and how the Rosetta Stone makes it possible to decode ancient writings. They then develop their own picture symbol codes and write messages using picture symbols instead of letters. They then use...
John F. Kennedy Center
Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Through Song
A lesson all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad introduces scholars to African American spirituals. By way of reading, speaking, and listening, learners discover, analyze, and decode African American spirituals. They...
Curated OER
Weather Words Decoder (Easy)
Kids love a mystery! There are 11 sets of numbers, and each number translates to a certain letter. To find the word, learners have to record which letters are associated with which numbers. The theme is weather related vocabulary and...
Curated OER
Personal Telephone Numbers: Deciphering a Message
In this deciphering a message worksheet, middle schoolers decipher 23 names of famous people given a phone number. Students use the numbers and letters on a telephone key pad to decipher phone numbers into names.
Curated OER
Secret Messages and Matrices
Students use matrices and linear equations to decrypt a secret message. They receive a part of the encoded message to decode by means of inverse matrices. Pupils write critiques about the activity.
PBS
Hidden Messages in Spirituals
Slaves laboring in the cotton fields of the old South singing joyously may have convinced overseers that their workforce was happy and content, but in truth, these spirituals contained secret codes. After viewing a short video about...
Curated OER
Coded Message Game
In this coded message activity, learners use the two-digit numbers and letters of the alphabet code to decipher a quote about the brain from Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Students decode eighteen words.
Curated OER
John Glenn Secret Message
In this John Glenn worksheet, students reveal a secret message by decoding the symbols to spell out the secret message. Students utilize the alphabet key to decode the message.
NASA
Speaking in Phases
Hear from deep space. Pupils learn how satellites transfer information back to Earth. They learn about three different ways to modulate radio waves and how a satellite sends information with only 0s and 1s. Using sound, class members...
Curated OER
Binary and Communication Systems
Students participate in an activity that introduces them to the concept of binary coding as a language. They decode messages using special boards that has its own code for different letters. They create new codes by rearranging wires...
Curated OER
Christmas Secret Message Puzzle
In this decoding the message learning exercise, students fill in the blanks using the letters that match each Christmas picture on the page. Students write 19 letters.
Curated OER
Thanksgiving Secret Message Puzzle
In this Thanksgiving secret message instructional activity, students use a picture/symbol key given at the bottom of the page to decode a Thanksgiving message. A reference web site is given for additional activities.
Curated OER
Political Cartoons: Literacy
Readers decode and deconstruct political cartoons to heighten critical thinking, extra-textual literacy, and making meaning from symbolism and metaphor. A compatible activity to use in English class when your 8th or 11th graders are...
Curated OER
Fall Secret Message Decoder Puzzle
For this decoding worksheet, students decode a puzzle which makes fall pictures equal a letter. Students decode 13 letters to solve the puzzle.
Curated OER
Which Colored Filter Will Decode a Secret Message?
Students investigate how to create secrete messages through filters. They view pictures with red and green filters and discuss what they observe. They select the color filter that works best to read secret messages. They view pictures...
Curated OER
A-Maze-ing Message
In this dental care secret message worksheet, students decode the message hidden in the tooth by following the arrows and recording the letters in the order they find them.
Curated OER
Magnetism-Decode Encrypted Statements
Third graders solve a cryptogram by decoding a message written with wingdings. In this decoding lesson, 3rd graders solve a message related to magnetism. Students have notes about magnets once they've finished.
Curated OER
Coded Messages
High schoolers solve matrices by multiplication. In this algebra lesson, students create coded messages and relate it to solving matrices. They multiply and find the inverse of matrices.
Shodor Education Foundation
Caesar Cipher
Caesar ciphers hide secret missives. A simple interactive lets users encode and decode hidden messages. The cipher method here is the Caesar shift.
Code.org
The Need for Encryption
Scholars investigate the need for encryption as they read a portion of the book Blown to Bits and discuss encryption techniques. They finish by attempting to decode a message written using a Caesar cipher.
Computer Science Unplugged
Count the Dots – Binary Numbers
Did you know you can send a message using only zeroes and ones? This interactive resource presents an introduction to binary numbers. Through code cards, pupils learn to convert binary numbers to decimal numbers.
Teach Engineering
Basically Acidic Ink
If you don't want to drink red cabbage juice, here's another use for it—a decoder! Using vinegar and ammonia-based window cleaning liquids as invisible inks, scholars create designs in the second lesson of the series. Red cabbage juice...