Antonenko, P., & Xu, Z., & Koh, D. H., & Wusylko, C., & Dawson, K., & Bhunia, S., & Benedict, A. (2022, August), Engaging Children in Cryptology and Cybersecurity Learning and Career Awareness  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41951

\bibitem{asee_peer_41951}
  Antonenko, P., \& Xu, Z., \& Koh, D. H., \& Wusylko, C., \& Dawson, K., \& Bhunia, S., \& Benedict, A. (2022, August), \emph{Engaging Children in Cryptology and Cybersecurity Learning and Career Awareness}
  Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN.
  10.18260/1-2--41951

Pavlo Antonenko, Zhen Xu, Do Hyong Koh, Christine Wusylko, Kara Dawson, Swarup Bhunia, and Amber Benedict.  "Engaging Children in Cryptology and Cybersecurity Learning and Career Awareness".  2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August.  ASEE Conferences, 2022.  https://peer.asee.org/41951 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_41951}
  Pavlo Antonenko, Zhen Xu, Do Hyong Koh, Christine Wusylko, Kara Dawson, Swarup Bhunia, and Amber Benedict.
  "Engaging Children in Cryptology and Cybersecurity Learning and Career Awareness".
  \emph{2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, 2022, August}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2022.
  https://peer.asee.org/41951 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_41951
author = "Pavlo Antonenko, Zhen Xu, Do Hyong Koh, Christine Wusylko, Kara Dawson, Swarup Bhunia, and Amber Benedict"
title = "Engaging Children in Cryptology and Cybersecurity Learning and Career Awareness"
booktitle = "2022 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2022"
month = "August"
address = "Minneapolis, MN"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/41951}
number = {10.18260/1-2--41951}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Cryptology, the art of making and breaking secret codes (Stephenson, 1999), has been used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages for centuries. Today, cryptology serves as the backbone of cybersecurity to protect the information security of the nation, businesses, and individuals (Parr & Penzl, 2010). Our project was funded by NSF Division for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Environments to design, develop, and test a technology-enhanced cryptology and cybersecurity curriculum to engage 3rd- to 5th-graders, especially girls and African Americans, in cryptology explorations in afterschool programs. The curriculum is designed to cultivate students' interest and career awareness in cryptology and cybersecurity, and increase children’s symbolic and morphological awareness. This afterschool curriculum strategically integrates a comic book, a series of digital activities in a mobile and web-based app, unplugged activities, role model videos, and teacher guides. 

While the project is ongoing, we have tested our curriculum during two pilot implementations in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, we have examined the feasibility, usability, and efficacy of the curriculum, and made careful modifications to all the curriculum components based on the results of the pilot implementations as part of our design-based research. Our data show that elementary students are in fact engaged and able to develop important cryptology and cybersecurity skills and understandings. Importantly, children also expressed better awareness of cybersecurity professions. The two pilot implementations also provided us important design implications for how to scaffold STEM learning for elementary students in afterschool environments using a combination of digital and unplugged activities and a comic book that ties them together via a powerful narrative and charismatic near-peer characters. 

In Fall 2021, our curriculum was implemented in 16 afterschool classrooms across the Southeastern U.S. Over 200 elementary students and 17 teachers in urban, rural, and suburban afterschool programs are participating in the associated research. These programs brought in very diverse backgrounds - some programs serve only girls, others - only African American students, students with learning disabilities, students from refugee families etc. We are employing qualitative and quantitative methods and instruments to study (1) how the curriculum impacts students' learning of cryptology and cybersecurity, (2) how children develop awareness of careers in cryptology and cybersecurity, (3) how students with different backgrounds (e.g., African American students, girls, students with learning disabilities) experience the curriculum. 

AU  - Pavlo Antonenko
AU  - Zhen Xu
AU  - Do Hyong Koh
AU  - Christine Wusylko
AU  - Kara Dawson
AU  - Swarup Bhunia
AU  - Amber Benedict
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Engaging Children in Cryptology and Cybersecurity Learning and Career Awareness
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41951
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41951
ER  -