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的社会相关性日益增加，这在年轻人身上尤其如此。非常需要计算思维来充分理解网络安全中的关键概念，并为整个计算提供强大的透镜。 为了满足这一需求和机会，该项目将开发一个可扩展的，可访问的课程，让中学生参与，以提高网络安全和计算机科学的招聘和保留。主要基于项目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，然后使用协作的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交互动做好准备。该项目将制作急需的K-12网络安全教育材料，这些材料具有吸引力，严谨，与当前的网络安全趋势相关。使这种趋势和相应的安全策略具体，可访问，并为中学生几乎没有编程背景的相关性是一个重大的挑战。该团队将开发一个为期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，介绍网络安全概念以及合作网络安全挑战。该项目将在人与人的互动中建立网络安全原则，使年轻的学习者能够理解网络安全中的关键概念，这些概念是课堂外互动的基础。该项目将通过提供一个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来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，该项目将提供一条明确的路径，以扩大到田纳西州的全州实施。该项目得到了安全和值得信赖的网络空间（SaTC）计划的支持，该计划为解决网络安全和隐私问题的提案提供资金，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育。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。

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.