SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHING
LINGUISTICS 484 CODE MAKING AND CODE BREAKING Linguistics 484 was created in Spring 2006 from an NSF grant awarded to CHRIS BREW. It is a puzzle-based introduction to cryptography and its applications, designed for a general humanities audience. In Linguistics 484, students learn to encode and decode information using progressively more sophisticated methods. They also study the history and mechanics of writing systems, computer languages, and ciphers. The class serves as an introduction to linguistics, because the study of writing systems sets students up to think about phonology, morphology, text-to-speech conversion and the like. It also presents history and politics, as students learn about the
social and societal context of codes. Additionally, it opens students’ eyes to the possibility that science and math can be applied to new and interesting subjects. The class is hands-on. Throughout the quarter, students participate in debates about the role of codes in shaping world politics. Groups of
CRYPTOGRAM
students also get to design their own codes and ciphers, and try to break codes and ciphers designed by other groups. Recently, the course has also included a campus-wide scavenger hunt with coded messages as clues. This has developed a life of its own as a student society called the Black Chamber Society.
{solution on pg. 9}
ECIHNCHD QM IRZ CI CXMZPCLZ LRIMZPNLZQRI RO ZYD EDCPIDT, RP RO TQLZQRICPK WCBDPM, XNZ QM MRWDZYQIH CPQMQIH RNZ RO ZYD URPB, IDDTM, ZQDM, FRKM, COODLZQRIM, ZCMZDM, RO ERIH HDIDPCZQRIM RO YNWCIQZK, CIT YCM QZM XCMDM XPRCT CIT ERU, LERMD ZR ZYD HPRNIT. -IRCY UDXMZDP
IN MEMORIAM
ILSE LEHISTE We are saddened by the passing of our esteemed colleague Distinguished University Professor ILSE LEHISTE, on December 25, 2010. A webpage has been set up at inguistics.osu.edu/ilse to honor Ilse. If you have thoughts, pictures or other things you would like to share, please send them to lingadm@ ling.osu.edu. Contributions in Ilse’s memory can be made online to the Ilse Lehiste Memorial Fund (#313586), or mailed to The Ohio State University Foundation, Office of University Development, 1480 West Lane Avenue, Columbus, OH 43221.
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