Students will weigh the advantages of cybersecurity in protecting individuals and systems against potential disadvantages of the over-restriction of content and delivery.Students will communicate, verbally and in writing, the advantages or disadvantages of cybersecurity.

The lessons provided are presented by Scholastic and sponsored by Norton Lifelock.
All rights reserved by Scholastic.
Below is an overview of the three lessons provided.
The lessons do not coincide with one another.
The teacher can choose to use all three or select the best option for the classroom needs.

The PDF Links includes:
Lesson 1: Understanding Online Safety (45 minutes)
- Students will analyze text, citing evidence and summarizing central ideas. They will make inferences to create their own cybersecurity protection plan.
- Students will use the provided copy of #Cybersmarts student magazine to create their personalized online protection plan.

Lesson 2: Identifying Preventive Technologies (45 minutes + presentation time)
- Students will conduct research on preventive technologies built and used by professionals in the cybersecurity field (e.g., firewalls, ad blocker apps, antivirus software, voice recognition software, virtual private network (VPN), etc.).
- Students will then prepare a presentation - the given choices are a skit or interview. Presentation options can be easily adapted to best fit your classroom needs.
- Research planning/ gathering page is provided.

Lesson 3: Making Online Profiles More Secure (2 part lesson - 90 minutes total)
- Students will use analytical and reasoning skills to identify areas of vulnerability in an online profile and come up with strategies for how to make them more secure by applying information from a text.
- First, students will analyze their own personal profiles (if applicable). Then, they will analyze a provided “profile” to identify security holes. Last, discuss the answers and reasonings as a class.
*This lesson can be shortened to fit into one class period.
*(Optional) An extension idea is provided. It includes information from all lessons. Students will use what they have learned to create their own cybersecurity device.

Cybersecurity is a very important portion of computer science today.  This activity has students complete a web search to find the ten things they feel you should know about some aspect of cybersecurity.  This activity can be completed by a group of students or by an individual student.

The student will complete equation word problems with them all having the theme of Cybersecruity. Then as a class discuss Cybersecruity.

In this second part of a three part series, students will explore the ideas around Decrease, or Divide, and Conquer algorithm/programs to further understand the importance of password development, use, safety, and safekeeping by completing several unplugged activities over the course of three class periods (approximately 30-45 minutes each).  These activites can be completed seperately (stand-alone) with a few adjustments as well. Part 1 introduces Brute Force using a playing cards demonstration to sort as desired.  Part 2 introduces Decrease (or Divide) and Conquer to sort Quadrilaterals from Non-Quadrilateral shapes.  Part 3 uses the methods of both Brute Force and Divide and Conquer algorithms to decrypt (unscramble) passwords using commonly recognizable number patterns and words (completed on paper, or unplugged).  These activitess are intended for upper middle school students, but could also be adjusted for lower level highschool or simplified/adjusted for other ages as well with the editable copies provided.

In this final part of a three part series, students will practice Brute Force and Decrease (or Divide) and Conquer methods to try to crack a password puzzle to further understand the importance of password development, use, safety, and safekeeping by completing several unplugged sorting activities over the course of three class periods (approximately 30-45 minutes each).  These activites can be completed seperately with a few minor adjustments as well. Part 1 introduces Brute Force using a playing cards demonstration to sort as desired.  Part 2 introduces Decrease (or Divide) and Conquer to sort Quadrilaterals from Non-Quadrilateral shapes.  Part 3 uses the methods of both Brute Force and Divide and Conquer algorithms to decrypt (unscramble) passwords using commonly recognizable number patterns and words (completed on paper, or unplugged).  These activitess are intended for upper middle school students, but could also be adjusted for lower level highschool or simplified/adjusted for other ages as well with the editable copies provided.

Passwords are essential to protecting our private information from others. Use this lesson to explore some basic probabilty behind password options and how easily they can be guessed! This lesson provides an intro into cybersecurity and its vocabulary, as well as incorporates low prep activities you can modifiy to fit your needs.