EAGER: SaTC-EDU: Mathematically-grounded metaphors to teach AI-related cybersecurity

随着人工智能（AI）在现代社会的使用越来越广泛，儿童学习网络安全实践以防范数字系统带来的隐私和安全风险的需求越来越迫切。该项目将通过制定和实施 一个适合中学生的时间和教师友好型学习模块。该学习模块将被设计为融入现有的中学数学课程。迫切需要开发这样的教育材料，特别是针对STEM中代表性不足的少数群体的青少年，因为他们不适当地经历了与人工智能相关的网络安全问题的伤害，并且不太可能有基于学校的经验来告知他们的反应。该项目旨在使中学生能够在越来越受人工智能影响的世界中管理自己的数字身份和风险承担。该项目还将支持计算机和教育领域的研究生有意义地参与并获得协作，校本，跨学科研究的经验。该项目旨在提高中学生在日常在线活动中对安全“最佳实践”的使用，同时增强他们对驱动人工智能和网络安全技术的基本安全原则和数学概念的基本理解。为此，项目团队正在开发一个学习模块，该模块依赖于“隐喻作为具体化”的教育原则来教授与人工智能相关的网络安全。这种方法的创新需要将这些隐喻建立在其基本的数学原理中。该项目超越了对“可解释的人工智能”的研究，让最终用户对人工智能背后的数学原理有了基本的理解，这是网络安全培训的一个关键进步。为了调查中学生与数学知识和行为相关的AI相关网络安全能力，项目团队将采用混合方法，探索性研究方法。学生的网络安全知识，行为意图调查，数学亲和力，在“网络安全演习”中观察到的决策以及特定模块的测试成绩的前测试和后测试的组合将用于评估该项目。该项目得到了安全和值得信赖的网络空间（SaTC）计划的特别倡议的支持，以促进网络安全，人工智能和教育领域之间新的，以前未探索的合作。SATC计划与联邦网络安全研究和发展战略计划和国家隐私研究战略保持一致，以保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly widespread in modern society, the need for children to learn cybersecurity practices that protect against the privacy and security risks created by digital systems is increasingly urgent. This project will address this need by developing and implementing a time- and teacher-friendly learning module that is geared towards middle school students. The learning module will be designed to integrate into existing middle school math curricula. There is a critical need to develop such educational materials, particularly for adolescents from minority groups that are underrepresented in STEM because they unduly experience harm from AI-related cybersecurity issues and are less likely to have school-based experiences that can inform their responses. The project seeks to empower middle school adolescents to manage their own digital identities and risk-taking in an increasingly AI-influenced world. This project will also support graduate students in computing and education to participate meaningfully and gain experience in collaborative, school-based, transdisciplinary research. The project will share materials developed to provide flexible, widespread access to the resources for middle school education stakeholders across the U.S.This project aims to improve middle school students’ use of security “best-practices” in their day-to-day online activities, while enhancing their fundamental understanding of the underlying security principles and math concepts that drive AI and cybersecurity technologies. To this end, the project team is developing a learning module that relies on the educational principle of “metaphors as reification” to teach AI-related cybersecurity. The innovation in this approach entails grounding these metaphors in their underlying mathematical principles. The project transcends research on “explainable AI” by giving end users a fundamental understanding of the mathematical principles behind AI, which constitutes a key advance in cybersecurity training. To investigate middle school students’ AI-related cybersecurity competencies relative to their mathematics knowledge and behaviors, the project team will use a mixed methods, exploratory research approach. A combination of pre- and post-tests of students’ cybersecurity knowledge, behavioral intention surveys, math affinity, observed decision-making in a “cybersecurity drill,” and module-specific test scores, will be used to evaluate the project. This project is supported by a special initiative of the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program to foster new, previously unexplored, collaborations between the fields of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.