Crypto Decoded: Understanding Digital Currency

Teacher Tips

Hook

• Show the three crypto offers and have learners vote Trust, Avoid or Check Further on mini-whiteboards before you reveal each one. The answer key is:
  Offer 1 (Avoid): guaranteed returns plus urgency, both classic scam red flags. A real investment can't promise a profit.
  Offer 2 (Check further): a real asset, but still high-risk and volatile. Worth researching, not blindly trusting.
  Offer 3 (Avoid): influencer hype and social proof with nothing behind it, a textbook FOMO tactic.
• Two of the three are scams and one is genuine but risky, and the slide asks learners if they spotted the two scams. Try not to give that away before the vote, so the split in the room does the work first.
• When you get to "Only unintelligent people fall for crypto scams", a learner may share something personal, like "my cousin made a fortune" or "my dad lost loads". Acknowledge it directly: "That's exactly why this session matters. Both outcomes are completely normal in crypto, and today you'll find out why." Then make the point that scams are built to exploit how people think, and they catch people of every background and ability level.

ITZA Pathways

• Pathway 1 covers the mechanics: what crypto and blockchain are, and the parts of a wallet (public key, private key, seed phrase). Pathway 2 covers the psychology: scam tactics and the 5-question decision framework learners need for the class activity.
• As you circulate, ask "How has this changed the way you think about the things you see online?" It connects the content to learners' own social media feeds rather than leaving it abstract.
• Early finishers can move on to the Crypto Minigame, as a bonus rather than a finish line. If a group is skimming the wallet components or the 5-question framework to get there faster, ask them to slow down. The class activity depends on that content.

Classroom Activity

• Groups design an advert for a fake cryptocurrency, built to fool as many people as possible. Before they start, say out loud that the aim is to get better at spotting scams, not at running them.
• The six tactics are on the slide. Each advert needs at least three of them, plus a made-up coin name, a specific promise, a call to action, and entirely made-up people, brands and logos. The last rule keeps it clearly fictional, so there should be no real celebrities or companies.
• Asking groups to hide their tactics as well as they can pushes them past the obvious and into genuinely persuasive design, which makes the debrief much richer.
• Before each group reveals which tactics they used, ask the rest of the class "Which tactics can you spot, and how do you know?" That turns each presentation into the 5-question framework in action, applied to each other's work.
• Eight minutes to design, then present and discuss each advert as a class. The value is in comparing several adverts, so it's better to keep to time than to perfect one.

Plenary

• Part 2's reflective question is the big question itself: "What is crypto and how do I stay smart about it?" It asks learners to answer it now, in their own words, rather than recall facts.
• The lock-in is from Warren Buffett, one of the world's best-known investors, in 2022. His point is that crypto "produces nothing", and only has value if someone else will pay more for it than you did. The slide's follow-up line adds that understanding crypto means understanding how maths and code can reinvent what "money" and "trust" mean, while protecting yourself from the hype.
• The session doesn't take a side on crypto. It's about thinking critically, not steering an opinion. If a learner asks "So is crypto good or bad?", it works well to turn it back: "What would you need to check before deciding, for any specific coin?"