6月時觀到了一堂很棒的輔導員夥伴公開課，當下對於閔嵐老師將全英的講述和洋芋片密碼機的製作結合的如此之好留下非常深刻的印象，所以立刻決定在自己學校的暑假資優營也來使用這個有趣的活動。可是，當自己實際要備課的時候才發現困難重重，因為理解背後運作的原理及如何轉化成易懂、可理解的英語就已經有挑戰性，加上如何使用一個又一個的activity/task讓學生在整整一個上午都能專注、不無聊，更是花了最多時間在準備這次的上課。
Picture this: a teenager is staring intently at an
empty Pringles can, a pair of scissors, and a sheet of scrambled letters. They
aren't just doing a summer camp craft; they are wrestling with World War II
cryptography—and they are doing it entirely in their second language.
Recently, after observing a brilliant lesson by a fellow EAT member, I traded in our usual ESL activities (like brewing bubble milk tea or extracting banana DNA) for something with significantly more friction. We built simulated Enigma machines out of snack containers.
Here is the counter-intuitive truth about bringing
heavy STEM concepts into a language classroom: the magic doesn't happen when
the activity goes smoothly. It happens when it stalls. Explaining the
mathematical permutations of an Enigma machine is hard enough in your native
tongue. Doing it in simplified English meant I had to tear down massive,
abstract concepts into their barest, most logical parts. Ultimately, the
language barrier didn't hinder the cryptography lesson; it actually forced a
hyper-focus on clear, procedural communication. The struggle was the
lesson.
If you want to inject a little espionage and heavy
logic into your syllabus, here is the exact blueprint I used to break this
beast down into four manageable phases.
1. The Pre-Mission Briefing (Reading Comprehension)
You can't build a cipher if you don't know what it
is. I generated an AI-assisted text loaded with target vocabulary about the
Enigma machine. But instead of a passive read-aloud, we treated the text like a
puzzle. Students predicted the core concepts before even glancing at the page,
and we ran a gauntlet of four-corner discussions, jigsaw reading, and running
dictation. They were out of their seats, arguing over meaning, and physically
tracking down information.
2. The Engineering Phase (Hands-On Crafting)
Next came the hardware: empty chips cans, tape,
scissors, and paper strips of simulated wire connections. This was the
cognitive bottleneck. Explaining exactly how the coding works—and why the cipher
yields millions of possible code settings—tested my ability to simplify complex
mechanics into grade-level English. But watching the lightbulb moment, when
they finally grasped why the Allies thought this machine was unbreakable, was
worth every ounce of effort.
3. Tradecraft and Transmission (Collaborative
Coding)
Practicing the cipher with random vocabulary words
is a waste of a good setup. Instead, I gave them a real-world cover: they were
secret agents scheduling a covert meetup with their best friends. They had to
encrypt the time, location, and itinerary of their hangout. Watching them slide
encrypted Pringles-can messages across the desks was hilarious, highly
engaging, and entirely student-driven.
4. The Debrief (Oral Presentations)
To solidify the summer camp’s objectives, we closed
with structured oral presentations. I supplied targeted questions and sentence
starters, giving them the exact scaffolding required to articulate their
engineering triumphs in clear, unpretentious English.
The Takeaway
The energy in that room was electric. Having two of my English pedagogy
students from Providence University observe the hands-on engineering—and seeing
Director Tseng capturing the moments on camera—made the execution feel
incredibly validated.
When we strip away the safety nets and hand our students complex,
high-friction tasks, they don't shut down. They adapt. I’m already plotting the
next iteration—perhaps expanding this into a broader STEM-ESL unit, or hosting
encrypted video-call exchanges with partner schools across the globe.
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