Integrated Outreach: Increasing Engagement in Computer Science and Cybersecurity

Research on innovative, integrated outreach programs guided three separate week-long outreach camps held across two summers (2018 and 2019). These camps introduced computer science through real-world applications and hands-on activities, each dealing with cybersecurity principles. The camps utilized low-cost hardware and free software to provide a total of 84 students (aged 10 to 18 years) a unique learning experience. Based on feedback from the 2018 camp, a new pre/post survey was developed to assess changes in participant knowledge and interest. Student participants in the 2019 iteration showed drastic changes in their cybersecurity content recall (33% pre vs. 96% post), cybersecurity concept identification within real-world scenarios, and exhibited an increased ability to recognize potential cybersecurity threats in their every-day lives (22% pre vs. 69% post). Finally, students’ self-reported interest-level before and after the camp show a positive increase across all student participants, with the number of students who where highly interested in cybersecurity more than doubling from 31% pre-camp to 65% post-camp. Implications for educators are large as these activities and experiences can be interwoven into traditional schooling as well as less formal camps as pure computer science or through integrated STEM.

Bibtex Citation:

@Article{educsci10120353, AUTHOR = {Wolf, Shaya and Burrows, Andrea Carneal and Borowczak, Mike and Johnson, Mason and Cooley, Rafer and Mogenson, Kyle}, TITLE = {Integrated Outreach: Increasing Engagement in Computer Science and Cybersecurity}, JOURNAL = {Education Sciences}, VOLUME = {10}, YEAR = {2020}, NUMBER = {12}, ARTICLE-NUMBER = {353}, URL = {https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/12/353}, ISSN = {2227-7102}, DOI = {10.3390/educsci10120353} }