Collaborative Research: SaTC: EDU: RoCCeM: Bringing Robotics, Cybersecurity and Computer Science to the Middled School Classroom

网络安全教育对于培训、发展技能和提高意识至关重要。考虑到计算机和互联网日益增长的社会相关性，这对年轻人来说尤其如此。我们非常需要计算思维来充分理解网络安全中的关键概念，并从整体上提供一个强大的计算视角。为了满足这一需求和机遇，该项目将开发一个可扩展的、可访问的课程，吸引中学生，以提高网络安全和计算机科学的招聘和保留。主要以项目为基础的课程将侧重于基于块的机器人编程，涵盖计算和网络安全。关键的网络安全原则将在涉及人际沟通挑战的社会背景下引入，然后使用协作虚拟机器人平台映射到技术技能。学生可以将计算挑战与人际关系联系起来，熟悉网络安全的基础，并为负责任的在线社会互动做好准备。该项目将制作迫切需要的K-12网络安全教育材料，这些材料具有吸引力，严谨且与当前的网络安全趋势相关。使这些趋势和相应的安全策略具体化、易于访问，并与几乎没有编程背景的中学生相关，是一项重大挑战。该团队将开发为期9周的模块化课程，涵盖计算基础和基于块的编程、网络通信、网络安全概念介绍和合作网络安全挑战。该项目将网络安全原则根植于人与人之间的互动，这样年轻的学习者就可以理解网络安全的关键概念，这些概念对课堂外发生的互动至关重要。该项目将通过提供引人入胜的环境和严格的任务来提高学生对网络安全、计算和机器人技术的兴趣，并通过直观的基于块的语言平坦化参与实际网络安全所需的学习曲线，从而产生广泛的影响。在多所学校进行试点测试后，该项目将为在田纳西州推广到全州实施提供明确的途径。该项目由安全与可信网络空间（SaTC）计划支持，该计划资助解决网络安全和隐私问题的提案，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育。SaTC项目与《联邦网络安全研究与发展战略计划》和《国家隐私研究战略》保持一致，旨在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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Cybersecurity education is crucial to training, developing skills, and improving awareness. This is particularly true at a young age, given the increasing societal relevance of computers and the Internet. There is a great need for computational thinking to adequately understand key concepts in cybersecurity, as well as offer a powerful lens on computation as a whole. To address this need and opportunity, this project will develop a scalable, accessible curriculum engaging middle school students to improve recruitment and retention in cybersecurity and computer science. The primarily project-based curriculum will focus on block-based programming of robots, spanning computing and cybersecurity. Key cybersecurity principles will be introduced in a social context involving human-to-human communication challenges, then mapped to technical skills using a collaborative, virtual robotics platform. Students can connect computational challenges with interpersonal situations, becoming familiar with the foundations of cybersecurity and preparing themselves for responsible social interactions online.The project will produce sorely-needed K-12 cybersecurity educational materials that are engaging, rigorous, and relevant to current cybersecurity trends. Making such trends and corresponding security strategies concrete, accessible, and relevant for middle school students with little to no background in programming is a significant challenge. The team will develop a 9-week modular curriculum spanning computing fundamentals and block-based programming, network communication, introductory cybersecurity concepts, and cooperative cybersecurity challenges. The project will ground cybersecurity principles in human-human interactions so that young learners can understand the key concepts in cybersecurity that are fundamental to interactions that occur in the outside the classroom. The project will have broad impact by providing an engaging environment and rigorous tasks to raise students' interest in cybersecurity, computing and robotics, and by flattening the learning curve required to engage with hands-on cybersecurity through an intuitive block-based language. After pilot testing in multiple schools, the project will provide a clear path to scale up to state-wide implementation in Tennessee.This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity 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.