Journal Article

Establishing a GenCyber Student Camp for High School Students in Underserved Communities

Oakley, John, Plachkinova, Miloslava, Valero, Maria, Duong, Anh

2025

Overview

This teaching tip offers valuable insights into establishing a GenCyber student camp in underserved communities. It provides teaching tips and best practices for designing a curriculum tailored to high school students. The study highlights effective strategies for recruiting a diverse group of participants, addressing the global shortage in the cybersecurity workforce. Over a six-month period, students participated in a variety of online and in-person activities. The study presents practical assignments used to boost student engagement and participation. Experiential Learning Theory was applied to develop and implement learning objectives, with adapted scales to measure outcomes specific to the program's needs. Overall, students demonstrated increased cybersecurity knowledge upon completing the camp. This teaching tip serves as proof of concept, encouraging others to seek NSA funding for GenCyber grants to benefit their local communities.

• Publisher: EDSIG
• Subject: Best practice / Best Practices / Camps / Career Readiness / Careers / Community / Curricula / Curriculum development / Cybersecurity / Education / Educational Technology / Elementary Secondary Education / Employees / Ethics / Experiential learning / Federal funding / Grants / Guidelines / High School Students / In Person Learning / Influence of Technology / Information technology / Instructional Effectiveness / Instructional Materials / Labor Force / Laboratories / Learner Engagement / Learning / Learning Activities / Learning Processes / Learning theories / Learning theory / Lecture Method / Minority Groups / National security / Networks / Opportunities / Professional ethics / Professionals / Recruitment / Secondary school students / Secondary schools / Student participation / Students / Teaching / Underserved populations / Workforce