I am not a trained instructor, educator, or teacher. The materials and lesson plans presented here are my attempt at mimicking the successful techniques of educators with whom I've had the pleasure of working.
At the time of the creation of this class I was an undergraduate student in computer science. I drew upon four years of experience in the information security industry. The class targets what I felt was the lowest hanging fruit for attackers (password security) and aims to introduce students to what I felt were the most important of the core concepts proposed by the GenCyber program.
The materials that I used to teach a GenCyber Girls summer camp class on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) campus for summer 2018.
There is no day five for a number of reasons, one being that we were not able to move as quickly as I had initially planned, two being that day five was initially supposed to be reserved for the students to pick a topic they wanted to talk about.
Please, for the love of all that is good, if you plan to use these materials do ensure that they're up to date. Information Security is an industry that moves fast and what is good practice this morning may be a sure way to get yourself hacked this afternoon.
If you have updates that you'd like to have included in these plans please send me a pull request and I'll get on it, you'll be added to the recognition list at the bottom of the page.
I believe (see the disclaimer) that these lessons are appropriate for students ages fourteen and up. That said, my experiences with GenCyber has been that the students will have a wide range of skill level and interest in the materials. So if you're using this for a GenCyber class, please be aware that you will have some students moving much faster than others.
I plan to upload the lesson plans here as well.
If you are in the position I found myself (an undergraduate student preparing a class for the first time) I recommend hitting up Google for some reading on some of the following topics before finalizing your plans and giving your class. Pay special attention to Intervention and Assessment.
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Gradual release of responsibility
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Zone of proximal development
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Cooperative learning
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Attention signals
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Mini lessons
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Extension Activities
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Intervention
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Assessment
I had lots of people around to hold my hand through every step of the process.
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Gail Menius for taking the time away from a busy schedule to show me how to plan lessons, and volunteering to co-teach the class two years in a row. This would all have been a train wreck if not for Gail.
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Kelly Corwin for organizing and guiding the planning, development, and execution of the GenCyber program at SDSM&T.
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Logan Lembke and Benjamin Garcia for being the TAs without which the class would have been a wreck.
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Val Manes for printing off hundreds of those 3-2-1 sheets and not complaining when I simply stole them.