We have designed some extra activities which you can run alongside “Operation Teapot Tempest – Choose Your Own Adventure” aimed at young people. They are easy to adapt for different age ranges.
Vocab Check
Particularly with primary age children, it’s important they understand the different vocabulary around crime scene investigation and digital forensics. Although the more technical terms are introduced in the adventure itself, some younger students may need a reminder on other ones.
You can find the full glossary of terms on this page.
Caesar Cipher Challenge
Post completing the Choose Your Own Adventure, to extend your students, they can learn about ciphers and encryption.
In pairs, students need a Challenge worksheet and a Caesar Cipher template. They will also need a split pin per pair, scissors, and a pen.
Students will be introduced to Caesar Ciphers and have messages left by Mysterious Brews, which they then need to decrypt. Depending on time, they can then write their own secret messages, and swap them with a friend for them to decrypt.
You can enhance this activity for older students by expanding the range of ciphers they can learn about such as Pigpen Ciphers, Substitution Ciphers, and Vigenere Ciphers – the last one being more appropriate for Secondary School Students.
Scene Survey
In the Choose Your Own Adventure, the students were guided through external surveillance so they could learn about a scene. They can now have another go, this time without the guidance to help BYTE complete a covert investigation in VVI’s lair.
They are provided an image of the lair, and they must notice any hazards (e.g. wet floor, chemicals) or forensic risks (e.g. we don’t want to unplug or turn off any devices) or risks of being caught (e.g. webcam, microphone in the phone).
They can either have a copy of the worksheet each in a pair to write on, or you can put the image on the screen at the front of the room, and your students can write on the image as a team.
To extend the activity, they can think about real life locations – perhaps their classroom or the playground. Walk around as a group, and look out for things that may be worth noticing if you were going to do a covert operation!