Covers 26-30 April 2024.

Students received a lesson on Bletchley Park, British Intelligence in World War II.  It focused on the Enigma Codebreaking and Alan Turing, including his heartbreaking tragedy – the world thanking him by telling him he did not belong in it.  To all of those who have ever felt like Alan – you are so loved, you belong here, you are exactly who you are supposed to be and we are so glad you are here. <3

Readings (hard copy, or Teams in WWII folder):

• Overlooked No More: Alan Turing, Condemned Code Breaker and Computer Visionary (from The New York Times).
• What the Imitation Game Didn’t Tell you About Alan Turing’s Greatest Triumph.

Optional Resources:

• Bletchley Park Encyclopedia Brittanica
• In Canada, in 2022, Conversion Therapy was criminalized in a unanimous vote in Parliament: Article: Canada Bans Conversion Therapy.  The torture that they put Turing through is something that is used in Conversion Therapy, which is now considered a crime in Canada.

Requirement: Pre-Planning

• All of you received personalized instructions in your Grading Conference on pre-planning and pre-writing strategies you are to be using for all assignments.  Given that this is significantly longer than typically given for this assignment, multiple stages of planning are expected by all students.  Ms. Morden will be collecting your pre-planning and it will be reviewed as part of your assessment.

Your assignment will be to write a reflection based off of something related to Alan Turing and the Computing Machine.  We are working on inferring, perspectives, significance, and you using information to build off and explore your own ideas, thinking, and questions.    Remember reflections require quotations, but you may ask questions and must use “I” statements.

Please remember to approach this topic with kindness, empathy, and respect.

Reflection due to Teams by the end of class on Tuesday, 30 April 2024.