On the Development of Cybersecurity and Computing Centric Professional Developments and the Subsequent Implementation of Topics in K12 Lesson Plans (RTP)

Andey Robins; Andrea Burrows; Mike Borowczak

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Technical Session 7: Cybersecurity and Computing
Page Count: 22
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41203
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41203
Download Count: 389

Paper Authors

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Mike Borowczak University of Wyoming orcid.org/0000-0001-9409-8245

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Dr. Mike Borowczak received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering in 2013. Formerly the Loy and Edith Harris Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Wyoming, he is now an Associate Professor, serving as the Director of the Cybersecurity Education and Research (CEDAR) Center and Lab, and the Co-Director of the Advanced Blockchain Research and Development Lab. He is a former hardware security architect and data scientist, having worked in both the semiconductor industry as well as several since-acquired startups. His research interests include Secure Distributed Systems, Security and Resilience of Autonomous Systems, Continuous and Adaptive Authentication, Cyber-Physical Systems and Applications, and Hardware-Level Security for Lightweight Agents. He and his students have published over 46 journal and conference publications. He is a senior member of the IEEE, ACM, and IET. His research has been funded (~$6.2M since 2018) by federal, national, state, and industrial entities, including the NSF, NSA, Idaho National Laboratories, State of Wyoming, IOHK and Kraken.

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Andrea Burrows University of Wyoming

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Andey Robins University of Wyoming

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Andey Robins is a graduate student studying K20 computer science and cybersecurity education. They are also involved in supply chain security research and adversarial program synthesis research.

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Abstract

In recent years, Wyoming has developed Computer Science (CS) standards for adoption and use within K-12 classrooms. These standards, adopted in January of 2022, go into effect for the 2022-2023 school year. The University of Wyoming has offered two different computer science week-long professional developments for teachers. Many K-12 teachers do not have a CS background, so developing CS lessons plans can be a challenge in these PDs.This research study is centered around three central questions: 1) To what extent did K-12 teachers integrate computing topics into their PD created lesson plans; 2) How do the teacher perceptions from the two CS PDs compare to each other; and 3) How was the CS PD translated to classroom activity? The first PD opportunity (n=14), was designed to give hands-on learning with CS topics focused on cybersecurity. The second PD opportunity (n=28), focused on integrating CS into existing curricula. At the end of each of these PDs, teacher K-12 teachers incorporated CS topics into their selected existing lesson plan(s). Additionally, a support network was implemented to support excellence in CS education throughout the state. This research study team evaluated the lesson plans developed during each PD event, by using a rubric on each lesson plan. Researchers collected exit surveys from the teachers. Implementation metrics were also gathered, including, how long each lesson lasted, how many students were involved in the implementation, what grades the student belonged to, the basic demographics of the students, the type of course the lesson plan was housed in, if the K-12 teacher reached their intended purpose, what evidence the K-12 teacher had of the success of their lesson plan, data summaries based on supplied evidence, how the K-12 teachers would change the lesson, the challenges and successes they experienced, and samples of student work. Quantitative analysis was basic descriptive statistics. Findings, based on evaluation of 40+ lessons, taught to over 1500 K-12 students, indicate that when assessed on a three point rubric of struggling, emerging, or excellent - certain components (e.g., organization, objectives, integration, activities \& assessment, questions, and catch) of K-12 teacher created lessons plans varied drastically. In particular, lesson plan organization, integration, and questions each had a significant number of submissions which were evaluated as "struggling" [45%, 46%, 41%] through interesting integration, objectives, activities & assessment, and catch all saw submissions which were evaluated as "excellent" [43%, 48%, 43%, 48%]. The relationship between existing K-12 policies and expectations surfaces within these results and in combination with other findings leads to implications for the translation of current research practices into pre-collegiate PDs.

Citation
Format

Borowczak, M., & Burrows, A., & Robins, A. (2022, August), On the Development of Cybersecurity and Computing Centric Professional Developments and the Subsequent Implementation of Topics in K12 Lesson Plans (RTP) Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41203

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In recent years, Wyoming has developed Computer Science (CS) standards for adoption and use within K-12 classrooms.  These standards, adopted in January of 2022, go into effect for the 2022-2023 school year.  The University of Wyoming has offered two different computer science week-long professional developments for teachers.  Many K-12 teachers do not have a CS background, so developing CS lessons plans can be a challenge in these PDs.This research study is centered around three central questions: 1) To what extent did K-12 teachers integrate computing topics into their PD created lesson plans; 2) How do the teacher perceptions from the two CS PDs compare to each other; and 3) How was the CS PD translated to classroom activity? The first PD opportunity (n=14), was designed to give hands-on learning with CS topics focused on cybersecurity. The second PD opportunity (n=28), focused on integrating CS into existing curricula. At the end of each of these PDs, teacher K-12 teachers incorporated CS topics into their selected existing lesson plan(s). Additionally, a support network was implemented to support excellence in CS education throughout the state. This research study team evaluated the lesson plans developed during each PD event, by using a rubric on each lesson plan. Researchers collected exit surveys from the teachers. Implementation metrics were also gathered, including, how long each lesson lasted, how many students were involved in the implementation, what grades the student belonged to, the basic demographics of the students, the type of course the lesson plan was housed in, if the K-12 teacher reached their intended purpose, what evidence the K-12 teacher had of the success of their lesson plan, data summaries based on supplied evidence, how the K-12 teachers would change the lesson, the challenges and successes they experienced, and samples of student work. Quantitative analysis was basic descriptive statistics. Findings, based on evaluation of 40+ lessons, taught to over 1500 K-12 students, indicate that when assessed on a three point rubric of struggling, emerging, or excellent - certain components (e.g., organization, objectives, integration, activities \& assessment, questions, and catch) of K-12 teacher created lessons plans varied drastically. In particular, lesson plan organization, integration, and questions each had a significant number of submissions which were evaluated as "struggling" [45%, 46%, 41%] through interesting integration, objectives, activities & assessment, and catch all saw submissions which were evaluated as "excellent" [43%, 48%, 43%, 48%]. The relationship between existing K-12 policies and expectations surfaces within these results and in combination with other findings leads to implications for the translation of current research practices into pre-collegiate PDs.
AU  - Mike Borowczak
AU  - Andrea Burrows
AU  - Andey Robins
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - On the Development of Cybersecurity and Computing Centric Professional Developments and the Subsequent Implementation of Topics in K12 Lesson Plans (RTP)
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41203
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41203
ER  -