<![CDATA[Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles.]]>Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. The maze must have a start and a finish and only one solution. How can you make the maze more difficult for your friends?

Using any character that you can type with a keyboard design a Caesar cypher. How can you make your cypher harder to decrypt?

If you are not limited to substitution how can you make it even harder to break?

These are some of the motivating activites for my 5th grade CS class.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/a94a7496-7421-4199-91e9-9a0e562aa3a8/using-graph-paper-design-a-20x20-maze-that-fills-the-spaces-with-lines-and-right-angles.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 01:56:52 GMTTue, 12 May 2026 10:27:42 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 13:45:39 GMT]]>@futurebird You might find this interesting:

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input 1-07 p193-224 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Part 7 of a course in computer programming from the 1980s.

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Internet Archive (archive.org)

It's a random maze drawing program from Input Magazine.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/muddle/statuses/116561906178430217https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/muddle/statuses/116561906178430217Tue, 12 May 2026 13:45:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 12:55:48 GMT]]>@quinn @futurebird

I drew a maze in 6th grade that none of my classmates could solve. It wasn't complicated but I had accidentally put in an optical illusion so that the way out looked like a U-turn to where you started.

But it was still a legit maze, if you took the fake U-turn you got out.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/Phosphenes/statuses/116561710178407129https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/Phosphenes/statuses/116561710178407129Tue, 12 May 2026 12:55:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 12:11:16 GMT]]>@futurebird Another neat trick in live mazes is to have the same crossroads junction repeated. Having people wonder if they are in the same place again.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://drupal.community/users/Klara/statuses/116561535102233673https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://drupal.community/users/Klara/statuses/116561535102233673Tue, 12 May 2026 12:11:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 12:05:24 GMT]]>@futurebird quite some time ago (90s) I wrote an autogen function for a maze that took pseudo random seeds in such a way that one could skew various things (number dead ends, turn left to get out, right to get out etc. could also rotate an existing maze). Adding in the fluff was easy but it took me weeks to get something working on just making a valid maze). I dunno if I still have that code.

Also you probably hear this a lot, but I'll say it: your classes sound phenomenal!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fediscience.org/users/notoriousiptg/statuses/116561512021346382https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fediscience.org/users/notoriousiptg/statuses/116561512021346382Tue, 12 May 2026 12:05:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 11:40:57 GMT]]>@futurebird Don't neglect the common failing in pen-and-paper mazes of their often being far easier to solve in reverse!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/epicdemiologist/statuses/116561415859723021https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/epicdemiologist/statuses/116561415859723021Tue, 12 May 2026 11:40:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 11:36:54 GMT]]>@mansr

Using a set of characters that look similar DOES matter. Things like using period, comma and the colon... it makes finding small words and trying them in the test key much harder.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561399918291430https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561399918291430Tue, 12 May 2026 11:36:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 11:34:31 GMT]]>@futurebird I figured statistical cryptanalysis would be a bit above the kids' level. What sort of the strategies do they use to make their cipher harder? Do they realise that it doesn't actually matter?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://society.oftrolls.com/users/mansr/statuses/116561390559339365https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://society.oftrolls.com/users/mansr/statuses/116561390559339365Tue, 12 May 2026 11:34:31 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 11:29:58 GMT]]>@futurebird Regarding lesson ideas, one of the skills I'd like to see more of is empathetic user observation. Perhaps they could first play a game of checkers and then make a two-person checkers game? My thinking is that they'd make a version, watch people play it, see how the controls or display could be better, iterate, and then watch again to see if an improvement really improved things.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/williampietri/statuses/116561372703166848https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/williampietri/statuses/116561372703166848Tue, 12 May 2026 11:29:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 11:18:40 GMT]]>@futurebird it is very different also for a maze you can see from the top, versus one where you are immersed in. A long corridor with the end visible will be walked through by nobody. But making a bend at the end to lure people on and make them lose time, doesn't make much sense on paper.
Also there is the trick (in immersion again) of always turning left or right, that can be countered by making that choice an endless loop. But I think that is countered by the extra rules you got.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://drupal.community/users/Klara/statuses/116561328242682558https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://drupal.community/users/Klara/statuses/116561328242682558Tue, 12 May 2026 11:18:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 11:11:10 GMT]]>@futurebird add stairs and multiple levels of maze 😁

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/dahie/statuses/116561298779071269https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/dahie/statuses/116561298779071269Tue, 12 May 2026 11:11:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:50:06 GMT]]>@mansr

Just to keep in mind the level here (5th grade) they start not knowing what "characters" are. In fact, that's one of the main points of the lesson. What are characters, how can they be stored. (we look at binary too)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561215929915806https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561215929915806Tue, 12 May 2026 10:50:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:48:18 GMT]]>@mansr

I give them the text encrypted by their peers and a Caesar cipher is plenty hard to break for a 5th grader even with a table of letter frequencies.

They discover that there may be spelling errors in their friend's text which they complain to me about as "unfair" but I just say that it's realistic.

I would love to do more, but harder encryption is difficult to present in a way where we can always crack it.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561208835980868https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561208835980868Tue, 12 May 2026 10:48:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:45:03 GMT]]>@futurebird Are you familiar with the Nifty Assignments sessions from the SIGCSE symposium? Also check out EngageCSEdu.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/peterdrake/statuses/116561196074377018https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/peterdrake/statuses/116561196074377018Tue, 12 May 2026 10:45:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:44:02 GMT]]>@futurebird I did a small art project painting mazes and got to tell you that shit is so much more complicated than it looks.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.circl.lu/users/quinn/statuses/116561192073482817https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.circl.lu/users/quinn/statuses/116561192073482817Tue, 12 May 2026 10:44:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:43:54 GMT]]>@futurebird What answers do you expect for the Caesar cipher question? These are trivially broken with a simple statistical analysis regardless of the alphabet used, so I don't see how the question as phrased has any correct answer. It can of course be a good starting point for discussion.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://society.oftrolls.com/users/mansr/statuses/116561191558126627https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://society.oftrolls.com/users/mansr/statuses/116561191558126627Tue, 12 May 2026 10:43:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:41:53 GMT]]>The question of "how to make a maze harder" is deeper than it looks. More dead ends means the maze is harder. Longer dead ends make a maze harder... But more points where you need to choose which way to go also makes the maze harder. These things work in opposition to each other, making longer dead ends means fewer branch points.

What is the balence that leads to the most confounding mazes.

They are so *motivated* to make something hard for me or for their peers.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561183622216060https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561183622216060Tue, 12 May 2026 10:41:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:35:01 GMT]]>@futurebird *sneaks into class because it looks fun, gets busted due to obvious age

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ohai.social/ap/users/115683904065635825/statuses/116561156584577728https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ohai.social/ap/users/115683904065635825/statuses/116561156584577728Tue, 12 May 2026 10:35:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:30:14 GMT]]>When I hear a student say "but how do I make a maze?" ... then he makes it anyway I feel like that was worth it.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561137783888070https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561137783888070Tue, 12 May 2026 10:30:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Using graph paper design a 20x20 maze that fills the spaces with lines and right angles. on Tue, 12 May 2026 10:29:24 GMT]]>For almost every project we start by working without the computer, then move to the computer when we need it.

I'm really interested in getting them to design systems and notice how those systems are designed.

I want programs and computing to be a way to "do more" --

And I'm always looking for new lesson ideas!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561134547844657https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sauropods.win/users/futurebird/statuses/116561134547844657Tue, 12 May 2026 10:29:24 GMT