CyberSTEM™ (Middle School)

What are students, teachers and parents saying?

Sometimes it’s hard to get this age group involved, especially to stay after school. It’s something when they come and ask to make the program on a different day then basketball practice to make sure they can attend. Not to mention how much I learn in the process.                                                                                                                                                                     Teacher

I have been most impressed with the connection between your after school program and with what is taught during the day. For the first time I saw a spark of real interest in my daughter’s eyes. She has never been interested in anything math or science related before, but she is looking forward to their classes, she is doing homework in advance, doing a science fair related to something done in the CyberSTEM program and she has even started to  think about doing this as a career field.  Thank you again!                                                                                                                                                              Parent

I like the program and it has definitely helped with my ideas of going into cybersecurity or working for NSA. It has also improved my programming skills since I have never programmed before. The activities are fun and would highly recommend it to other students.                                                                                                                                                            Student

Students engage in hands-on STEM activities and learn about digital literacy (technology fluency and applications, team building, collaboration tools, problem based critical thinking), tied to local math , technology and science curriculum while learning and applying basic ethical, safety and security concepts through gaming, modeling and simulation development, all while investigating exciting careers that interconnect the fields of science, technology, engineering and math- emphasis placed on information assurance including cryptography and digital forensics.

• Students explore various modeling and simulation software packages (MicroWorlds, Building games and debugging with Excel, Scratch, GoogleSketchUp and Alice) in the fall and robotics in the spring
• Students create Interactive Games and storyboards related to cybersecurity with MicroWorlds, Scratch, Excel and Alice
• Students explore the essential system components in a computer and identify basic symptoms, diagnose and troubleshoot common problems arising in the important components of your computer
• Students learn about cryptography and the application to cybersecurity- encryption and decryption,  symmetric and asymmetric encryption algorithms, and cryptanalysis and cracking

Based on the successful Young Scholars Program curriculum developed through a National Science Foundation Research grant, the STEM Mindtools Program:

• Promotes careers in Science, Math, and Engineering that utilize Technology, with a particular focus on careers in Cybersecurity
• Correlates with the school’s on-going Science and Math curriculum
• Promotes fun and age appropriate activities
• Promotes digital literacy supporting the C3 framework and National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS*S)

Programs have been held in after/before school, extension or integrated format delivery. A staff member from the school is recruited to serve as advisor/instructor for the program. We provide professional development, supply materials and content updates, and continue to network, support and connect all instructors for cross pollination of efforts. Sessions typically run between 1 and 1 ½ hours once a week. The year round program typically consists of two 8-10 week sessions over the course of the year. Speakers are scheduled for each semester.

If run as an informal after school program, students are recruited through school efforts; fliers, PTA bulletin, school newsletters and website. Principals work with teachers to also target students. Past efforts have been fruitful in recruiting girls and special needs students (autistic and dyslexic). Take home parent materials are included with all activities. Parents are encouraged to attend at least one session each semester, in addition to the final Student Showcase event held at the end of each term. The program encourages students to continue to stay with the program by offering small give-aways for class challenges (donated by partners), session certificates and yearly participation awards (trophies-which get larger for each year participating).