Operation Code Cracker
Grades 5 to 7 | 60 minutes |Sure your students are crafty, but can they become a code cracker on a top-secret mission? Addressing national mathematic curriculum standards, this program demonstrates how codes and ciphers function in the world of espionage. Students become intelligence officers, making and breaking codes. Methods used for code cracking include a skytale, Caesar cipher wheel, and Cardono grille.
Key Concepts and Skills
- Substitution
- Frequency Analysis (beginning level)
- Logical thought
- Sequencing
- Patterns
- Probability
- Sequencing
- Critical thinking, conflict resolution, observation & analysis skills
Minute By Minute
Grades 7 to 12 | 75 minutes |Can your students change the course of history? Heat up your Cold War lesson by participating in a case-based simulation in which students play the role of intelligence analysts at the CIA in 1962. By examining declassified intelligence documents and U-2 photographs at various stages of the crisis, students “live” the crisis rather than only read about it. In this social studies standards-based lesson, students are challenged to make decisions and recommendations based on primary documents and photos. The outcome of the crisis is in their hands: Will their analysis provide President Kennedy with the information he needs to avoid nuclear catastrophe?
Key concepts and skills
- History: Cold War/Cuban Missile Crisis
- Government: how intelligence is interpreted and informs policy decisions
- Interpreting primary (declassified) documents
- Critical thinking and decision-making skills
Spy's Eye View
Grades 6 to 12 | 30 minutes |Your students can gain first-hand knowledge of the shadow world of spying in a briefing with a former CIA Case Officer or Analyst. In this 30-minute program, students learn about the life of an intelligence professional, how intelligence is collected and analyzed, and its role in American government. Students will also have an opportunity to “interrogate” the speaker. A pre-visit classroom guide assists you in preparing your students for this unique opportunity.
_Back To TopOperation Spy Student Adventure
Grades 7 to 12 | 90 minutes |Do your students have what it takes to be a spy? Now they can find out. In an action-packed hour, students become U.S. intelligence officers on an international mission to locate a missing nuclear device on the verge of being sold to a rogue nation. This
intense experience combines live action, video characters, themed environments, special effects, and hands-on activities.
Following the 60-minute experience, students will participate in a 30-minute debriefing that engages them in a discussion about the outcomes of their decisions. They also learn about the real
world of intelligence and examine a declassified document from the 9/11 case.
Key Concepts and Skills
- Government: howintelligence functions in U.S. government & its impact on foreign policy
- Current events: intelligence in the news
- Critical thinking, conflict resolution, observation & analysis, decision-making skills