Cryptograph Wheel

What To Do

• Instruct students to cut out both wheels (inner and outer wheel) from the printout.
• They will place the inner (smaller) wheel on top and in the centre of the outer (larger) wheel.
  • Ensure that the black dots from both wheels are lined up on top of each other. 
• Using a pencil, students will carefully poke a hole through the black dots on both of the wheels and then put the fastener through to hold them together. The wheels should be able to spin.
• Instruct students to spin the inner circle to line up the lowercase and uppercase letters (e.g., 'A' on the outer wheel to 'a' on the inner wheel).
• Below the lowercase 'a' is a number. Inform students that this is the number we will use to make a secret code.
• Instruct students to spin the inner wheel so the 'e' lines up with the 'A'. The number under the 'e' is '4' and this will tell anyone with a cryptograph wheel that you have shifted the letters by 4 in your word.
• Have students write the word 'SCIENCE' using the letters shifted by '4'. They should look on the outside wheel with the uppercase letters for 'S', the 'w' is under it so instead of 'S', they should write 'w'.
• Next, they should look at the lowercase letter under the uppercase 'C', it should be a 'g'. 
• Students will continue to do this under they get the word 'SCIENCE'. The coded word should be 'wgmirgi'.
• Now, students can shift the wheel to any number and write a coded message using their cryptograph wheel.