| Lab Name |
Introduction to Cryptography
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| Subject Area |
Mathematics, and Computer Science
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| Grade |
6 - 7
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| Topic |
Cryptography
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| Experiment Title |
Introduction to Cryptography
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| Hardware |
- COSMOS Toolkit: Computer Node
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| Software |
- COSMOS Toolkit: Framework
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| Number of Sessions to teach the topic |
1 session
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| Educational standards to be addressed |
CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards (2011)
- CI - Community, Global, and Ethical Impacts
- CL - Collaboration
- CPP - Computing Practice & Programming
- CT - Computational Thinking
Computer Science Principles
- 1.2 - Computing enables people to use creative development processes to create computational artifacts for creative expression or to solve a problem.
- 3.3 - There are trade offs when representing information as digital data.
- 6.3 - Cybersecurity is an important concern for the Internet and the systems built on it.
- 7.3 - Computing has a global affect -- both beneficial and harmful -- on people and society.
- 4.2 - Algorithms can solve many but not all computational problems.
- 6.3 - Cybersecurity is an important concern for the Internet and the systems built on it.
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| COSMOS concepts to be used for the lab |
Network security (cryptography) is extremely important in wireless communication. Wireless network security is the process of designing, implementing and ensuring security on a wireless computer network. It is a subset of network security that adds protection for a wireless computer network.The exponential increase in the use of mobile devices will lead to an increase in security threats. Devices on an unsecured wireless network are vulnerable to attacks. Unauthorized users can steal your personal files, conduct illegal activities, and monitor your web traffic on unsecure networks. Therefore, the use of cryptography is necessary.
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| K12 Educational Goals (How the educational goals are achieved through teaching using the experiment, how the topic is connected to the COSMOS concepts used) |
Students will be able to recognize that we use encryption everyday on the Internet. Students will be introduced to the field of cryptography and cyber security by learning about encryption and simple techniques for breaking (or cracking) secret messages. Students will use a tool that shows them about how long it would take to crack a given password using a standard desktop computer. The primary goal of the lesson is to understand how and why encryption plays a role in all of our daily lives. Students will learn how to crack a message with a Caesar cipher, using the COSMOS toolkit computer. They will also make connections to real-world cryptography and data privacy/security topics through this activity.
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| Short Description and Walk-through of the experiment |
Students will learn about cryptography and cybersecurity through an introduction to the Caesar cipher. Students will then also have an opportunity to complete an extension activity using the COSMOS toolkit to decode and send/receive secret messages.
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| Testbed mapping of the experiment |
Network security (cryptography) is extremely important in wireless communication. Wireless network security is the process of designing, implementing and ensuring security on a wireless computer network. It is a subset of network security that adds protection for a wireless computer network.The exponential increase in the use of mobile devices will lead to an increase in security threats. Devices on an unsecured wireless network are vulnerable to attacks. Unauthorized users can steal your personal files, conduct illegal activities, and monitor your web traffic on unsecure networks. Therefore, the use of cryptography is necessary.
|