The secret message decoder
A tool that encodes and decodes messages with classic ciphers, like the ones hidden in the Gravity Falls end credits.
Fill in the spaces and watch it change
Create an interactive browser page with a an old investigator’s journal, yellowed paper and blue ink look, inspired by the coded messages in Gravity Falls. It has two text boxes: you type a message in one and it appears encoded in the other. Include these methods: Caesar (with a choosable shift), Atbash (the alphabet backwards) and A1Z26 (letters as numbers). Each method has a “How does it work?” button that explains it with a one-word example. Add a challenge: a coded message hidden on the page that, once decoded, gives a clue about something at school. Everything works offline and nothing is saved.
4 fields are missing: they will be copied with the examples. The examples are fine to start with, but your own details are what make the piece yours.
Where it is made: An assistant that builds interactive browser pages (HTML and JavaScript), the one your Learning Facilitator set up for the Unit.
- Encode a message by hand with paper and pencil before trying the tool: that way you’ll know if the tool gets it wrong.
- Write the final challenge message yourself.
- Add a method your team invented and explain its rules to the tool.
- C1: encoding and then decoding gives back the same message.
- C2: someone in 10th grade understands each method’s explanation the first time.
- C3: the challenge can be solved with what the page teaches.
And at the end: did the prompt get better, or did the question?
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