Cracking Code Breakers!

Blackbirds have had a cracking time during our curiosity week! We transformed our classroom into a research station during WWII and tried to break some incredibly important codes. Starting our week with a few codes to crack put us into the right mindset and allowed us to put together a success criteria for being a code breaker. Here are some of the skills and qualities you would need to do this job:

  • basic level mathematics
  • trial and error
  • being a systematical thinker
  • finding the anchor
  • logical reasoning
  • observation
  • spotting patterns
  • PATIENCE

We then spent the next few days learning about the Dollis Hill Research center where Tommy Flowers invented the Colossus machine.  We became engineers and created our own inventions that solved a 21st century problem and pitched our ideas to the Dragons’ Den!

Finally, we ended our week by creating our own cipher wheels that cracked codes passed on from our allies.

These photos are from the job interviews we did when applying for a position at Dollis Hill!