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A Hands-On Cybersecurity Curriculum Using a Robotics Platform

Authors:

Nicole Hutchins,

Caitlin Snyder,

Ákos LédecziAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Pages 1040 - 1046

https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366878

Published: 26 February 2020 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents a study using a robotics platform for teaching computing and cybersecurity concepts to high school students. 38 students attended a week-long camp, starting with projects such as a simulation-only game and a simple autonomous driving program for the robots in order to learn and apply computational thinking (CT) and networking skills. They were then assigned a series of challenges that required developing progressively more advanced cybersecurity measures to protect their robots. This culminated in a final challenge that required implementing defensive measures such as encryption, secure key exchange and sequence numbers. We used an evidence-centered design framework to construct rubrics for grading student work. The pre- and post-test results show that the interventions helped students learn cybersecurity and CT concepts, but they had difficulties with networking concepts. These results correlate with scores from the game and the final challenge. Overall, surveys show that the competition-based robotics learning framework engaged students and supported their overall learning, but our intervention needs to be modified to help students learn networking concepts

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Cited By

Rayavaram PDindukuri SVellamchety KMarward JAbbasalizadeh MLee CNarain SStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Visual CryptoED: A Role-Playing and Visualization Tool for K-12 Cryptography EducationProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630963(1105-1111)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630963
Won MCarrington LEspinoza DAli MDasgupta DStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)A Cybersecurity Summer Camp for High School Students Using Autonomous R/C CarsProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630758(1435-1441)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630758
Kasenides NPiki APaspallis N(2024)The Edifying Impact of Blending Game-Based Learning with Educational Robotics: A Systematic Review of Empirical EvidenceSocial Computing and Social Media10.1007/978-3-031-61305-0_7(97-115)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-61305-0_7
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A Hands-On Cybersecurity Curriculum Using a Robotics Platform

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

February 2020

1502 pages

ISBN:9781450367936

DOI:10.1145/3328778

General Chairs:
Jian Zhang
Texas Woman's University, USA
,
Mark Sherriff
University of Virginia, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Sarah Heckman
North Carolina State University, USA
,
Pamela Cutter
Kalamazoo College, USA
,
Alvaro Monge
California State University, Long Beach, USA

Copyright © 2020 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 26 February 2020

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SIGCSE '20: The 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 11 - 14, 2020

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

Rayavaram PDindukuri SVellamchety KMarward JAbbasalizadeh MLee CNarain SStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Visual CryptoED: A Role-Playing and Visualization Tool for K-12 Cryptography EducationProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630963(1105-1111)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630963
Won MCarrington LEspinoza DAli MDasgupta DStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)A Cybersecurity Summer Camp for High School Students Using Autonomous R/C CarsProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630758(1435-1441)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630758
Kasenides NPiki APaspallis N(2024)The Edifying Impact of Blending Game-Based Learning with Educational Robotics: A Systematic Review of Empirical EvidenceSocial Computing and Social Media10.1007/978-3-031-61305-0_7(97-115)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-61305-0_7
Stein GJean DBrady CLédeczi Á(2023)Browser-based simulation for novice-friendly classroom roboticsFrontiers in Computer Science10.3389/fcomp.2022.10315724Online publication date: 10-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.1031572
Ma JZhang YZhu ZZhao SWang Q(2023)Game-Based Learning for Students’ Computational Thinking: A Meta-AnalysisJournal of Educational Computing Research10.1177/0735633123117894861:7(1430-1463)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/07356331231178948
Lee HClosser FAlghamdi KOttenbreit-Leftwich ABrown MKoressel J(2023)Current Experiences and Factors of Future Enrollment in Computer Science for High School StudentsTechTrends10.1007/s11528-023-00906-167:6(955-964)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-023-00906-1
Khan WSohail SRoomi MNisar QRafiq M(2023)Opening a new horizon in digitalization for e-learning in Malaysia: Empirical evidence of Covid-19Education and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-023-12176-829:8(9387-9416)Online publication date: 8-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12176-8
Ayanwale MSanusi IMolefi ROtunla A(2023)A Structural Equation Approach and Modelling of Pre-service Teachers' Perspectives of Cybersecurity EducationEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-023-11973-529:3(3699-3727)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2023
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Gardner TLeonard HWaite JSentance S(2022)What do We Know about Computing Education for K-12 in Non-formal Settings? A Systematic Literature Review of Recent ResearchProceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3501385.3543960(264-281)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2022
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Percival NRayavaram PNarain SLee C(2022)CryptoScratch: Developing and evaluating a block-based programming tool for teaching K-12 cryptography education using Scratch2022 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON52537.2022.9766637(1004-1013)Online publication date: 28-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON52537.2022.9766637
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