Big Ideas of Cryptography

This project aims to build a “Principles of Cryptography” learning path for secondary school students. We will design and test activities to teach Cryptography’s basic concepts in scaffolded programming environments with a balanced degree of guidance and freedom. We will provide guidelines for adoptions, including pedagogical suggestions on implementation and adaptation. Activities will be designed within a (proposal of a) framework of the “Big Ideas of Cryptography:” fundamental ideas and principles explained to be correct yet understandable by non-specialist teachers and students. The proposal can guide implementation and adaptation to different contexts and age groups. Moreover, it can also provide a basis for further discussion and research on the “Big Ideas” with cryptography and CS education experts.