SANS Launches New CyberStart Program for All High School Students

From darkreading.com

Free program lets students solve real-world security problems – and learn about cybersecurity.

K-12 computer science teacher Scott Dooley a few years ago was facing a conundrum: he saw massive job growth in cybersecurity and a pipeline of great entry-level jobs, but he couldn’t find the right resources or content to connect his students with the opportunities to truly learn cybersecurity and gain an interest in the field.

“I wanted something they could actually use,” says Dooley, who teaches inner-city and low-income students at Indianapolis-based Christel House Academy South. But most of what was out there was “really dry,” he says.

“I found I was teaching about cybersecurity rather than teaching cybersecurity,” Dooley says. “I needed inquiry-based things where the kids could get in and play around with stuff.” Indeed, he went so far as to ask the school’s IT department to open up their network for his students to probe (they said no).

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