UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology is hosting its first-ever summer camp aimed at providing teachers with fundamental cybersecurity principles.
The five-day NittanyGenCyber Teacher Camp is geared toward middle and high school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) educators. The camp will run from Monday, July 30, to Friday, Aug. 3, and will be held in the Westgate Building on the University Park campus.
Interested teachers can register online by Friday, May 25. There is no fee to participate and attendees are provided a fixed honorarium to cover travel and lodging expenses. Participants also will be eligible to receive 12 Pennsylvania Department of Education Act 48 hours upon completion of the program.
In the camp, teachers will be trained in the basic knowledge of the cybersecurity and data sciences fields and will be given guided instruction on creating lesson plans for course content. Individual classes will focus on providing resources for teachers who are delivering cybersecurity concepts in the classroom through courses like AP Computer Science, computer networking classes, and other STEM topics.
The camp will be led by Dongwon Lee, associate professor of IST; Nick Giacobe, assistant teaching professor of IST and director of the college's undergraduate programs; and Anna Squicciarini, associate professor of IST.
The program is funded through a grant from the National Security Agency and National Science Foundation. The camp is part of the national GenCyber program, which aims to increase interest and diversity in cybersecurity careers and improve teaching methods for delivery of cybersecurity content in K-12 curricula.
Interested teachers can learn more about the NittanyGenCyber Teacher Camp at gencyber.ist.psu.edu.