The sound of clicking computer keys and the ticking clock signifies time slipping away as students work to solve the complex challenges presented to them aboard St. Vrain’s Cyber Explorer Lab. They are deeply focused on “securing the bus” by solving vastly different cybersecurity topics that are similar to those they would encounter as industry professionals working in the field.
This nail biting scene will soon be a reality with the new Cyber Explorer Lab coming to students across St. Vrain Valley Schools. Similar to an “escape room,” the lab will challenge students to crack various cybersecurity codes in a race-against-the-clock style competition. The idea for the Cyber Explorer Lab was spurred from a student project team at the Innovation Center who, in collaboration with St. Vrain’s Transportation Department, will convert a retired bus within St. Vrain’s fleet into the lab, allowing the opportunity for a district resource to be repurposed into a new asset that will continue to serve St. Vrain schools in an innovative and cutting-edge way.
To prepare the lab for launch, student leaders are working diligently to design a meaningful program for their younger peers with the goal to educate them about specific cybersecurity concepts in fun and engaging ways that will drive their curiosity and interest in the field. “It’s about inspiring kids to want to pursue a career,” shared Gavin Crawford, junior at Silver Creek High School. “We want to lift the veil to make cybersecurity more approachable for students.” As part of their design process, the team visited an escape room to help inspire creative ideas to implement an engaging learning opportunity for students. Fellow junior at Silver Creek and member of the RaptorTECH program and Cyber Explorer Design Team, Kaylee Crouthamel uses her younger self’s perspective for inspiration to design interesting challenges for competitors. “Seeing how interested I am in cybersecurity now and thinking through what would have gotten me interested sooner has been very helpful in the design process.”
Aboard the Cyber Explorer Lab, the curriculum is designed for middle school students from St. Vrain and beyond to work together to defend against cyberattackers and “secure” the bus. “Our goal is to simulate a real-world cyber situation that incorporates what one would face if they were to work in the industry,” shares Crawford. To accomplish these goals, the project team students will be programming all of the activities and challenges for the participants and ensure that all systems and programs work together seamlessly.
To keep the bus secured, students will have a limited amount of time to work through a variety of cybersecurity-focused activities and challenges that will require critical thinking and collaboration, including password security, risk assessment, and multi-factor authentication strategies. The primary goal of the activities is to “teach underlying cybersecurity concepts that are especially engaging to younger students,” adds Crouthamel.
One task that students will need to complete to secure the bus is properly configuring a firewall to keep information safe. “Students will need to find a clue telling them, for example, that port 22 should be open and that port 23 should be closed,” shares Crouthamel. The students will be using a program on a computer that will allow them to control what ports are active and where the computer is sending data.
The Cyber Explorer Lab will build upon the work being done by St. Vrain’s Mobile Innovation Lab to continue to fulfill St. Vrain’s mission of spreading innovation both inside and outside of the district.
The student designers look forward to the thunderous sounds of cheering that will erupt when the students successfully “secure the bus” just before the last seconds of the clock expire. These celebrations are not only for their successes in the challenge, but also for the new cybersecurity knowledge and inspiration that each student takes with them, inspired to continue their learning and become even more aware citizens of the online community. The Cyber Explorer Lab will be hitting the road in late spring of 2024.
