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We believe it is a national imperative to cultivate American cybersecurity experts from a young age. However, middle school students from underrepresented groups are typically unaware of career opportunities in cybersecurity, and what they entail. Children who are members of underrepresented groups often lack a sense of identification with STEM fields and endeavors and should be introduced to career paths that are culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate. Cybersecurity professionals employ certain habits of mind toward ensuring continuous security which can be cultivated from an early age, and involve a high degree of creative problem solving, emergent negotiated action in groups, making sense of chaotic complexity and other "21st century skills."
This project endeavors to create a collectible card game (CCG) similar to other popular battle card games (such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon) to be used for teaching underrepresented groups of middle school children (grades 6-8) the habits that have become second nature to cybersecurity professionals and introducing them to growing opportunities in the field. Two K-8 schools in urban Chicago participate in the project. The project involves exploring the potential of CCGs in conjunction with current cybersecurity learning progression to develop a CCG that utilizes common game affordances such as backstory and character identification in ways that are culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate. Garnering an appreciation for the interrelations between multiple sign systems is central to learning. CCGs offer an appropriate path for capturing this complexity by mapping real world cybersecurity concepts and actions onto a CCG for middle school students.
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EDU: CySec: A Cybersecurity Collectable Card Game for Children