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Here is a route I took when teaching this material to bright high school students at PROMYS. (Of course, not using this language.) Let $R$ be a subring of $\mathbb{C}$, of finite rank over $\mathbb{Z}$. I was actually only doing the particular case of $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{-D}]$, for some positive integer $D$, but you could presumably be more general with your audience.

It is easy to show that ideal classes form a semi-group, and that this semi-group is finite (using Minkowski's theorem). Moreover, the proof is constructive; they can compute the class semi-group in practice without difficulty. It is also easy to show that, if the class semi-group is a group, then unique factorization into prime ideals holds.

I then had them compute lots of examples, and see that the class semigroup often was a group. You can then discuss those examples without mentioning integral closure at all. When you do get to integral closure, you can have them check their list of examples and see that the class semi-group is a group precisely when the ring is integrally closed. Hopefully, this will make the notion seem better motivated. I never actually got to proving that "all ideals invertible" is equivalent to "integrally closed", but presumably I don't see why I couldn't have if I had more time.

In your lectures will go further than minesetting of general commutative algebra, my proposal is to define the class semi-group; show that one dimensional, Noetherian and class semi-group is a group implies unique factorization into ideals; and compute class semi-groups, using Minkowski's theorem, for the number fields which you wish to exhibit.

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Here is a route I took when teaching this material to bright high school students at PROMYS. (Of course, not using this language.) Let $R$ be a subring of $\mathbb{C}$, of finite rank over $\mathbb{Z}$. I was actually only doing the particular case of $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{-D}]$, for some positive integer $D$, but you could presumably be more general with your audience.

It is easy to show that ideal classes form a semi-group, and that this semi-group is finite (using Minkowski's theorem). Moreover, the proof is constructive; they can compute the class semi-group in practice without difficulty. It is also easy to show that, if the class semi-group is a group, then unique factorization into prime ideals holds.

I then had them compute lots of examples, and see that the class semigroup often was a group. You can then discuss those examples without mentioning integral closure at all. When you do get to integral closure, you can have them check their list of examples and see that the class semi-group is a group precisely when the ring is integrally closed. Hopefully, this will make the notion seem better motivated. I never actually got to proving that "all ideals invertible" is equivalent to "integrally closed", but presumably your lectures will go further than mine.