Bastian Planning & Pacing Guide
- 9 Units
- 108-129 Hours
- 10th-12th Grade
This is a yearlong elective course open to 10th-12th graders who have taken either AP Computer Science A or AP Computer Science Principles, or who have received instructor approval. The course aims to give students a basic understanding of cybersecurity through technical reading, videos, podcasts, class discussions, hands-on applications, simulations, and board games. The course begins with an introduction to ethics, examining the ways in which values shape societies, ethical questions surrounding the use of technology, and the privacy/security trade-off. Next, the course discusses the CIA triad and gives a basic introduction to computer hardware, which are knowledge units needed for the rest of the course. The course then becomes more technical in nature, introducing students to image hardening, cryptography, network standards, and the OSI model. Next, students learn about the impacts of cybersecurity on personal, economic, political, and national security via lessons on disinformation campaigns, social engineering, supply chain security, and cyber warfare. The course concludes with identifying common security vulnerabilities (in hardware and software) and modeling cybersecurity risk.
Download the full PPG, or download individual units from the Course Units table below.
Instructional Setting & Course Overview
This course will be taught at Bollman Technical Education Center in Thornton, Colorado. Bollman is the Career and Technical Education Center for the Adams 12 Five Star School District– students come from all five of the comprehensive high schools in the district and one of the charter schools in the district. This is an elective course open to 10th – 12th grade students who have met the prerequisites necessary for the class (see Student Preparation section below). The average class size is 15 – 20 students.
This course has the following student demographics:
- 26% ELL
- 20% Gifted and Talented
- 6% on IEP/504
- 20% of Free/Reduced Lunch
- 13% Charter School Students
- 87% District Comprehensive High School Students
The course will require an estimated 108-129 hours. It is a yearlong course with 4 class periods per week at 55 minutes and one class period per week at 30 minutes.
This course is open to 10th-12th grade students who have taken either AP Computer Science A or AP Computer Science Principles, or who have received instructor approval.
Resources are listed in the materials section of each unit (linked below).
Major projects include:
- Create a country
- Privacy vs. security debate
- CIA Triad vocab/concepts poster
- Hardware and software working together project (e.g., sketch, model, board game, comic, etc.)
- Image hardening lab
- Creating a scytale and a Caesar Cipher
- Breakout box
- Build a patch cable
- Build Airgap network
- Information campaign presentation
- Phishing simulation
- Supply chain case write up
- Targeted attack simulation
- Pico CTF web exploits
- Attack tree poster
- DoD Cyber Awareness Challenge
Course Units
| Ethics | Establishing Trust | Ubiquitous Connectivity | Data Security | System Security | Adversarial Thinking | Risk | Implications | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
13-16 Hours Students learn how core societal values shape security considerations of designers and users and why privacy is essential for individuals, groups and government. Students also learn how cybersecurity ideas and events have impacted society. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
6-7 Hours Students learn how confidentiality, integrity, and availability are all interconnected. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
Unit 3 – Hardware & Software Basics 3-4 Hours Students learn how hardware and software work together to achieve an objective. | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
Unit 4 – Computer Systems Security (Image Hardening) 7 Hours Students learn what policies and procedures are put in place to keep data safe through a hand-on lab using a Windows image. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
Unit 6 – Networks, The Internet & IOT 24-27 Hours Students learn how the Internet organized and what role standards and protocols play in keeping networks secure. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Unit 7 – History & Economics of Cyber 6-8 Hours Students learn how risk management and economic tradeoffs impact cybersecurity decisions, how historical ideas and events have impacted society, and how the expansion of the threat environment has been addressed in society. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
10-13 Hours Students learn why software has security vulnerabilities, what the vulnerabilities are and the consequences of less secure software. | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
Unit 9 – Security & Vulnerabilities 23-30 Hours Students learn how cybersecurity risk is modeled; the difference between a risk, vulnerability, and a threat; how simplicity and restriction are overarching ideas for cybersecurity principles; and what security flaws/ vulnerabilities are in hardware and software. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |