Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative (ESCEI)
The CyberPatriot Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative (ESCEI) is a set of three fun, interactive learning modules aimed at increasing grade K-6 students’ awareness of online safety and cyber security principles. Like other CyberPatriot programs, the ESCEI aims to excite students about STEM education and careers by teaching them about cybersecurity in an engaging way. Given the increasing presence of the Internet in society, the program also aims to help students understand the widespread importance of cybersecurity in their everyday lives and equips them with skills to help better protect themselves on the Internet.
CyberPatriot
The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was created by the Air Force Association to inspire high school students toward careers in cyber security or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future. The CyberPatriot competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services in a six hour period. For more information on this program, check with your school’s counselor(s) and administrators.
IT Networking Academy
This program is offered through the Forrest Career and Technology Center. The first year is designed to provide the technical skills needed to meet the growing demand for entry-level professionals in the Information Technology field. The second year continues with the Cisco Networking Academy® CCNA Routing and Switching curriculum which teaches comprehensive networking concepts, from network application to the protocols and services provided to those application by the lower layers of the network through interactive media and practical experience and a series of hands-on and simulated activities.