Ben, this is Julie Steimle. I work on the CEEMS project with Debbie Liberi, who also runs the RET project. I am so happy you decided to submit a video the showcase. You did a great job!

From watching this video, I think you are working with High School students, is that right?
I think that this is a great lesson, what course are you working in? Your grounding question makes me think it is a Math class?

I also think that the ethical component is essential to this unit, thank you for including it! Did they enjoy hearing from an expert? How did students work on these different lessons? Did they work in small groups for the scavenger hunt?

Also, I really like your application of the EDP in the unit and how students went back to re-work their solutions if they weren’t successful the first time. How do students respond to the unit? What did they like the best about the unit? Finally, are you sharing this with other teachers? If so, how?

I agree that this seems like a terrific unit that connects abstract math to a practical application. What was the age and ability level of your students? While I don’t know much about cryptography, this lesson seems most suited for higher ability high school students. However, it seems as though it could be scalable to younger populations as well. Do you agree?

My own research concerns the benefits of teaching design thinking to students, so I was a huge fan of seeing how you incorporated the design process into your scavenger hunt. Did you explicitly explain this to your students? Did you find it challenging to motivate students to persist after repeated failure?

Thank you!

Important topic and interesting video presentation. Thanks. Can you talk a bit about the student population for which this unit is appropriate?

I am curious if these activities were engaging for both males and females.