Publication Date
12-15-2025
Abstract
The Cybercamp is a Cybersecurity summer camp for high school students that has been held for the last nine years at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Since its inception in 2016 the Cybercamp has undergone several transformations in response to budget reductions and the COVID pandemic, to finally become its current version: a rich, hands-on learning experience that we believe is easily replicable even in resource-challenged environments.
In this paper, we document the transformations of the Cybercamp and discuss the developed curriculum and materials in hopes that others will reuse, adapt, and improve upon them. In the Cybercamp, we apply active learning practices that have been shown to be effective in STEM education. We perform hands-on, activities, providing Capture The Flag (CTF) style practice exercises with automatic grading. The Cybercamp is assisted by college students who serve as peer-assisted leaders. The educational materials were designed with culturally relevant case studies, using open source technologies, and following Universal Design Learning best practices to make them as accessible as possible, particularly to low-income students. We discuss how we prevented students from falling behind and successfully completed the Cybercamp.