Pupils at Dauntsey’s enjoyed a visit from Dr James Grime this week who gave a talk about decoding and the history of the World War Two code-cracking machine, Enigma. Dr Grime is a mathematician who lectures on behalf of the Millennium Mathematics Project and the University of Cambridge. His particular specialisation is the history and mathematics of codes and codebreaking
During the day, Dr Grime talked to Second Form pupils about the history of coding, going back as far as Ancient Greece and the Spartans tattooing messages on slaves’ shaven heads, through to Tudor times and right up to modern day technology. In the afternoon, pupils were challenged to crack some codes of their own.
One pupil from the Second Form said:
“It was a brilliant day and really showed me how much effort it took to develop Enigma and how important the machine was to us winning the War. It also showed me how important and useful coding and code breaking is – it certainly made me think differently about my maths lessons!”
Pete Mobbs, Head of Maths at Dauntsey’s said:
“Teaching mathematics has changed a good deal in recent years and today we focus very much on problem-solving rather than just learning methods to complete calculations. The visit from Dr Grime was a perfect example of how the subject can be brought to life.
“Code breaking is a topic which really captures the pupils’ imagination and Dr Grime gave a fascinating history of coding through the centuries. Having a replica of Enigma in the classroom was a wonderful way for the pupils to understand the vital role mathematics can play in the real world.”