Cyber Defense Bootcamp for High School Technology Teachers

James Madison University, Harrisonburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

The need for more college graduates in cybersecurity is increasing. In order to facilitate cybersecurity education growth at undergraduate and graduate levels, programs and projects are needed to help attract and recruit college bound students to this field. This project will be part of a feasibility study investigating types of activities, pedagogy, target audience, scale, evaluation metrics and other factors of innovative projects to achieve this goal. The project will involve teacher professional development and promote improvement in cybersecurity education at the high school levels with two central goals: (1) attract and recruit college bound students to the field of cybersecurity; (2) produce more qualified students entering college programs of study in cybersecurity. All curricula, exercises, and activities developed, in whole or in part, as a result of this project will be available to the community through the NSF-sponsored RAVE Program and/or other dissemination channels. The primary goal of this project is to organize a week long Cyber Defense Bootcamp for High School Technology Teachers. It will expose secondary school teachers to the principles of good cybersecurity practices and the science behind those practices so that they may both teach their students effective practices as well as motivate these students to study more cybersecurity in more detail as they move into their chosen disciplines in colleges and universities. The main objectives of this Bootcamp include: 1. Improve Cyber Security awareness of participating high school teachers and their students; 2. Provide participating teachers with the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of Cyber Security; 3. Provide participating teachers with a complete set of course material to use at their home institutions; 4. Provide mentoring and help creating Cyber Defense clubs; 5. Introduce teachers to the Cyber Patriot and other nationally organized high school Cyber Defense competitions and encourage them to participate.