Inside EXPLO: Cracking the Code

What happens when you combine ancient ciphers, modern logic, and a room full of curious middle schoolers? You get EXPLO's Codebreaking elective: an immersive class where rising 7th, 8th, and 9th graders discover that math, language, and critical thinking can be exciting.

On a July morning last summer at Wellesley College, students climbed a hidden stone staircase to reach their classroom in the historic Founders Hall. Before class even began, the air buzzed with multilingual conversations—one student shared how she speaks Arabic at home with her bilingual toddler sister, while another demonstrated her French fluency. It felt like the perfect prelude to a class that explores the deep connections between language, pattern, and meaning. After all, what is a foreign language if not a code waiting to be understood?

Middle School Career Exploration Through the Art of Codebreaking

Led by Connor Dumont, an award-winning math teacher with nearly a decade of EXPLO experience, the Codebreaking elective goes far beyond simple puzzles. Students learn professional-level problem-solving skills that connect directly to careers in cybersecurity, data science, linguistics, mathematics, and computer programming.

"This is like algebra!" one student exclaimed while decoding a Caesar cipher—and she was absolutely right. The skills developed in this summer exploration program mirror those used by professionals every day, like pattern recognition, logical reasoning, and collaborative problem-solving.

From Theory to Practice: How Middle Schoolers Learn by Doing

The beauty of EXPLO's approach to middle school summer exploration lies in its hands-on methodology. Rather than simply learning about ciphers, students immediately apply their knowledge:

Layering Complexity

Connor wrote "EXPLO" on the board and demonstrated how to encode it using three different cipher systems: Bifid, Caesar, and Pigpen.

"We're going to double code it?!" a student gasped.

"We're gonna TRIPLE code it," Connor replied.

The room erupted: "Woahhhh!"

This moment captures what makes EXPLO special: the excitement of discovering that simple concepts can layer into genuine complexity, just like real-world problems.

Creating Original Challenges

Students then broke into small groups to design their own encoded messages. Some chose whimsical phrases like "Yodeling Pineapple Parrots" while others opted for meta choices like "Codebreaking is fun."

"The hardest part is coming up with a phrase!" one student laughed.

The Sound of Learning: Collaboration and Discovery

As groups worked to decode each other's ciphers, the classroom transformed. Deep silence fell as pencils scratched across paper. Students leaned over their work, completely absorbed in the challenge.

Then came the moments of connection:

"Have any of you ever done coding like this before?"

"No! This is so hard!"

"Yes, I've done this before—in math class, but I’ve also done digital coding."

"Oh, I've done digital coding! I know Java and a little bit of Python. But I think that's very different from this."

This is middle school summer exploration at its finest: students discovering connections, building on each other's knowledge, and recognizing that different types of "coding" share fundamental principles.

Building Resilience Through Challenge

Not every moment was easy. Frustration surfaced when students made mistakes or couldn't immediately crack a code:

"I can't do this," one student sighed.

Connor's response: "Keep going, you've got the first part!"

"But then I did the next part wrong and now I'm annoyed."

"Don't give up, you found your mistake."

The student returned to work and kept solving.

In learning to identify mistakes, adjust strategies, and persist through difficulty, crucial career and life skills develop.

Career Exploration Beyond the Classroom

By the end of class, students weren't just better at ciphers—they'd experienced what it feels like to think like a professional codebreaker, data scientist, or software engineer. They'd tasted the satisfaction of solving genuinely difficult problems through logic and teamwork.

When a student asked how to "un-Bifid" her code, Connor laughed: "Bifid is a verb now—I like that.”

While it seems silly, this linguistic play matters. When students create their own vocabulary around concepts, they're internalizing knowledge at a deeper level—the kind that sticks long after summer ends.

Friday's finale featured student-designed scavenger hunts, where they applied everything they’d learned to create puzzles for their classmates.

Why EXPLO's Approach to Summer Enrichment Works

EXPLO's Codebreaking elective exemplifies what middle school career exploration should be:

Rigorous but joyful. Students tackle genuinely challenging material while having fun with phrases like "Yodeling Pineapple Parrots."

Collaborative but individual. Small groups work together, but each student must understand the concepts themselves to succeed.

Connected to real careers. The skills learned directly transfer to fields like cybersecurity, linguistics, computer science, and data analysis.

Mistake-friendly. When students forgot which direction to shift their Caesar cipher, they didn't fail—they learned and tried again.

Student-driven. By designing their own ciphers and scavenger hunts, students become creators, not just consumers of knowledge.

The Secret Ingredient: Expert Educators Who Care

Perhaps the most important element isn't the ciphers or the historic campus—it's teachers like Connor Dumont, who bring both expertise and genuine enthusiasm to every class. His booming voice, encouragement during struggles, and celebration of student creativity created an environment where middle schoolers feel safe to take intellectual risks.

That's the EXPLO difference. It's not just about summer enrichment, but about helping young people discover what they're capable of when given the right challenge, the right support, and the right environment.

Start Your Summer Exploration Journey

Rising 7th, 8th, and 9th graders don't just attend classes at EXPLO—they discover passions, build skills, and explore possible futures. They work through challenging problems, support each other, and emerge with confidence and capabilities they didn't know they had.

Explore EXPLO's summer programs and enroll now for summer 2026.

Part of the Inside EXPLO series: Behind-the-scenes looks at how middle school students explore real-world skills through hands-on summer enrichment at Wellesley College.