Original Coverage & Source Attribution: thecampanile.org
As part of its AP Career Kickstart program which focuses on applied learning of career and technical education, the College Board released a new set of AP courses this year, including AP Cybersecurity.
According to a statement to The Campanile from The College Board, they have received input from higher education faculty and K-12 educators. Industry leaders have also provided guidance in the development of AP Cybersecurity to ensure that the course covers the essential skills students will need for a cybersecurity profession, as well as other parts of life.
“No matter what career path students choose, cybersecurity skills are essential digital literacy skills and are central to modern life,” the statement said. “Everyone needs to be able to protect vital information and data, whether it’s data on your own personal device or client data on a work device. AP Cybersecurity teaches students the key technical and durable skills they need to be productive citizens who understand data security.”
Paly adopted the course with a prerequisite of either AP Computer Science Principles or Functional and Object-Oriented Programming.
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With increasing AI use, computer science instructional lead and AP Cybersecurity teacher Christopher Bell said this is the first course to incorporate it into the curriculum.
“College Board usually (says) no to AI everything,” Bell said. “For this one they’re like, ‘Yes, we need to know AI for this,’ so it’s actually throughout all units, like AI coursework or how to use it, how to defend with it. It’s interesting. Students in this class will definitely be using AI throughout the year.”
Junior Marisa Million said she wants to use the skills she learns from the class to help others stay safe online.
“My grandparents are not the most educated on being safe online, so I would definitely try and use my cybersecurity knowledge to help them out,” Million said. “But also I might be potentially interested in a career in cybersecurity, so (I) could go that way too.”
Senior Audrey Mi said she would recommend the course to those already interested in computer science, because it adds to their foundational knowledge.
“It’s a great segue, especially for someone who’s interested in CS,” Mi said. “You can think of it as fundamental — it really covers the basic ideas of coding and the concepts behind it that are really relevant in our lives today, especially with the rise of AI. ”
Bell said the class was added because of its attraction to students and parent intrigue.
“We’ve had some students that have been really interested in the topic,” Bell said. “We have parents in the area that are actually working in that field, so they’re interested in that topic, too. ”
Bell also said current online security issues, along with his background in computer science, piqued his interest in teaching the course.
“I’ve actually taught a number of CS classes, some that I’ve created myself, so I like to not teach the same thing over and over forever,” Bell said. “When this course came up, this was also a really interesting topic, especially during the times we live in, where there’s lots of cyber breaches and cyber attacks all the time.”
Like her teacher, Million said she decided to take the course after she took AP Computer Science Principles because of her interest in the subject.
“It’s just a good skill to know, especially as the world is transitioning into more of an online space and using online communication to talk about things,” Million said.“Scams are becoming more prevalent, and it’s very important to know what is a scam and what is not a scam. ”
Additionally, Mi said recent news of cyberattacks on water systems around the US piqued her interest in the class.
“Since cybersecurity is such a prominent thing in our lives, seeing as the water place got hacked,” Mi said. “I saw in the news, and I (thought that) this class would be a great representation of what goes on behind the scenes and really understanding how to prevent attacks like that.”
With this recent news on cyberattacks, Bell said he is excited to teach a course connecting students’ knowledge to current events.
“We’re just really excited to be learning something that is so topical and necessary in the news,” Bell said. “There were talks just the other week about AI agents breaking free and having cyber attacks on other places. This is extremely topical. This is what we deal with in this area, and it’s cool that kids get to experience a college-level class for cybersecurity in high school.”
