Today in the forensics workshop the students learned about how to decode code and make secret codes with an alphabet wheel. During that part of the workshop it seemed like everyone was excited about code breaking and making code. Code breaking (also known as Cryptanalysis) is when you try to figure out a secret code by encrypting the code or decoding it as well. They learned how to do this by using modular arithmetic. It is a method for finding remainders where all the possible numbers (the numbers less than the divisor) are put in a circle. Then they would count around the circle the number of times of the number being divided and the remainder will be the final number landed on. For example, if they were trying to figure out the day of the week that their birthday would be on next year they would have seven numbers, one for each day, around a circle. Then they would count out the days in a year. The students tackled a much more difficult cipher called the Caesar cipher. This required them to understand the equation of a line. They had to use the formula y = mx + b in order to find the numbers that corresponded with letters in their coded note. After they decoded the cookie thief's note the students learned about blood typing to try to figure out who might have left blood behind while stealing the cookies. They did an experiment on how to mix blood with serums and figure out what blood type they are. Once they ruled that the blood had nothing to do with the case, they decided to bring in some suspects for an investigation. It seem like the workshop kids were very excited and energetic about trying to find the culprit. By the end of the workshop everybody had learned something about how to do forensics and the meaning behind it.