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New Mexico Foundations of Computer Science

Description

In this lesson, students will learn what is meant by cybersecurity and explore a few news worthy cyber attacks. They will also discuss the Internet of Things and the increase in connected devices.

Cybersecurity is the protection of computer systems, networks, and data from digital attacks. Increased connectivity via the Internet of Things and reliance on computer devices to send and store data makes users more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Define cybersecurity
  • Describe how the Internet of Things makes people more vulnerable to cyber attacks
  • Reflect on recent cyber attacks and identify the financial and societal impact of the attack
Description

In this lesson, students will learn about The CIA Triad. The CIA Triad is a widely-accepted security measure that should be guaranteed in every secure system. It stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.

  • Confidentiality is the protection of information from people who are not authorized to view it.
  • Integrity aims at ensuring that information is protected from unauthorized or unintentional alteration.
  • Availability is the assurance that systems and data are accessible by authorized users when and where needed.
Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Identify what the CIA triad is and how it relates to cybersecurity
  • Identify which part of the CIA triad has been broken in a given scenario
Description

In this lesson, students understand how they can control and protect their footprint. As students use the Internet, they are building their digital footprint. This includes social media posts, emails, picture and video uploads amongst other online activities.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Understand how their online activity contributes to a permanent and public digital footprint
  • Articulate their own social media guidelines to protect their digital footprint
Description

In this lesson, students will learn about and discuss cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to harass or target someone. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Understand the impact of cyberbullying, and identify unacceptable bullying behavior
  • Identify proper actions to take if they are victims of cyberbullying or if they observe someone being cyberbullied
Description

In this lesson, students will learn to recognize online predatory behavior and strategies on how to avoid and respond to it. The Internet is a great place to socialize, but it is important to be aware of risks. Common sense and following safety guidelines can help students stay safe online.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Identify predatory behavior and how to respond to it online
Description

In this lesson, students will discuss and examine policies regarding privacy and security. Using best practices like setting strong passwords, reading privacy policies, and using https can help in staying safe online.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Use best practices in personal privacy and security, including strong passwords, using https, and reading privacy policies
Description

In this lesson, students will learn about and discuss information literacy. Information literacy is having the ability to find information, evaluate information credibility, and use information effectively.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Effectively search for and evaluate resources
Description

In this lesson, students will learn about the impact of visually representing data to make information easier to analyze and use.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Explain the importance of visually depicting data to make information easier to use and to understand trends and changes in information
Description

In this lesson, students learn how computers can be used to collect and store data. They learn best practices for interpreting data that is presented. Data visualizations can be very helpful in recognizing patterns and answering questions, but can also be used to mislead if skewed or full of bias.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Understand how computers collect and store data
  • Analyze data interpretation by learning ways in which data can be skewed
  • How to think meta-cognitively about the data being represented
Description

In this lesson, students will learn what copyright laws are and how to avoid copyright infringement. They will explore why copyright laws are important and how they protect the creators.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Explain what copyright laws are and why they are important
  • Find images they are legally allowed to use in their projects
  • Accurately attribute images they find and want to use
Description

In this lesson, students will explore and discuss the ethics and legality around hacking. A security hacker is someone who seeks to break through defenses and exploit weaknesses in a computer system or network. There are white hat hackers, who help companies find and protect exploits in their systems, and black hat hackers who hack maliciously.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Identify the difference between white hat hacking and black hat hacking
  • Explain career opportunities in cybersecurity
Description

Now that students have learned about digital citizenship and cyber hygiene, they will take what they have learned and create a PSA to inform members in the community about a topic!

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Create a public service announcement for members of their community about a topic in digital citizenship or cyber hygiene
  • Use google sheets to store and analyze data, and create a data visualization.
Description

In this lesson, students complete a summative assessment of the unit’s learning objectives.

Objective

Students will be able to:

  • Prove their knowledge of digital citizenship and cyber hygiene concepts through a multiple choice quiz