Welcome to CyberMiSTS! We are very excited to be part of the NSF Video Showcase again this year.

CyberMiSTS seeks to identify what works in teaching cybersecurity to middle school teachers and students. It builds on a prior NSF project that used branching web comics to raise awareness in middle school students about cybersecurity concepts and careers. Students enjoyed the comics approach, but the afterschool workshop format was a real challenge, and the adults (teachers, administration, parents) thought that only students that were already “good at STEM” should participate. In fact, the opposite is true: current research shows that we can teach the technology, but we need true diversity of thinking to resolve our significant cybersecurity challenges. Our goal is to create a larger and more diverse pipeline of students that pursue cybersecurity careers by providing middle school teachers with the preparation and curriculum to successfully introduce more students to the field.

We are excited to engage with you this week and answer any questions you may have about our project, but we are also interested in learning from YOU:

1. What barriers have you encountered to teaching cybersecurity in a K12 classroom?
2. What do your students think cybersecurity means, and how do they think is it relevant to them?
3. What, in your experience, are some misconceptions that middle school students have about cybersecurity?
4. If you have taught cybersecurity in K12 classroom, how did you prepare for that experience?

The CyberMiSTS workshop will be held online this year! We are seeking applications from any middle school teacher in the US who wants to teach a classroom unit on cybersecurity concepts and careers.

Before you leave the Showcase, be sure to vote for your favorite video - even if it isn’t ours!

FYI - I'm a former cybersecurity practitioner turned researcher who's spent the last decade leading government funded research efforts in new and novel approaches for cybersecurity education. An active member of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Working Group, I am currently co-chair of the K12 Subgroup.

I like the idea of using a teacher's current curriculum as the basis for teaching about cyber-security as a often heard concern is "where am I going to fit this into my curriculum?"  How are you recruiting teachers to participate in this program? 

@James: We started in 2018 with outreach through the local BOCES, as we thought CTE teachers would be interested; NY State requires CTE credits in middle school.  We also sent direct emails to regional middle school teachers, professional contacts, Stony Brook University's Teachers program graduates, and promoting the project through twitter, webinars, and conferences.

With our shift this year to an online workshop, we have opened up recruiting efforts to include a broader group of local educators, the NICE Working Group communities, and cybersecurity education programs in other states. I am also reaching out to some of the national middle-school educator networks via Twitter and email.

As a follow-up, can you share a bit more about the curriculum that the teachers design for their classrooms? What types of activities have been most effective in heightening students' interest in cybersecurity? Also, since this builds on a previous project that was delivered in an informal setting, can you share some of the challenges and opportunities you've encountered bringing this program from an informal setting to formal classrooms?

Congratulations on your work. This sounds like a very timely project with essential concepts for students in this day and age.  I am interested to know how many schools/teacher have taught cyber security in their classroom/ schools? 

Great work! Will you make the curriculum available to anyone in the future. I can also see this as a good tool for ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) law enforcement agencies when they give school talks about the potential dangers of the internet. 

DeLene, we want teachers to be able to introduce cybersecurity concepts and careers to middle school students, so that students gain an understanding of how cybersecurity can impact them - and gain an awareness of potential cybersecurity careers. CyberMiSTS does not attempt to cover everything middle school students should know about cybersecurity; first, no generally-accepted standard exists, and second, teachers have limited time to address cybersecurity in class, unless they are developing a stand-alone cybersecurity class - which is in our experience not yet the norm. Teachers are carving out a week or two from an existing unit in business, math, science, research, etc. Additionally, many schools have not fully implemented their state standard (if it exists) to the extent so that current middle school students have encountered all the materials from the lower grade bands. Most districts are starting to implement their state standards first with high school students and then move to lower grades.

That said, our curriculum for teachers covers two broad topics. The first topic is data protection, e.g., threats [exposure, tampering, Denial of Service, etc.], goals of cyber security [confidentiality, integrity, availability, privacy, anonymity, etc.], vulnerabilities, attacks & methods, threat actor, threat model, malware, types of data & data states, encryption, data backup. The second topic is web security & privacy, e.g., passwords, credential stuffing, password managers, storing passwords on servers, hashing, 2-Factor Authentication, phishing, URLs, domains, HTTP & HTTPS, and digital certificates.

Teachers then select one topic and a few individual concepts that best suit their classroom and students (e.g., a math teacher may select web security & privacy, and a librarian may select data protection) and develop their class curriculum based on those selections. Privacy (encompassing the idea of a "digital footprint"), passwords and encryption were common concepts addressed in the classroom lesson plans of the first CyberMiSTS cohort in July 2019.

What are viewers feeling are the biggest highlight of this project? As presenters, feel free to share what your most important take away is? 

As a viewer, myself, I feel the biggest highlight of this project is the teacher training. I like the way the project builds teacher expertise. When teachers are actively involved in the development of their cyber security curriculum, they not only have ownership but they also created a deeper understanding of  the concepts, connected with their curriculum, and can meet more of their standards.  What other highlights did others notice in this project?

Happy to see a project like this available for teachers and students. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who dropped by! 

Please help us get the word out: this month we're accepting applications for this summer's virtual workshop - middle school educators anywhere in the US are welcome to apply!

We will be hosting another free, informational webinar about CyberMiSTS for educators who'd like to learn more before: join us on May 21st at 5:00 PM EDT -  registration will be available at https://www.stonybrook.edu/cybermists.