KU GenCyber Summer Camp

The University of Kansas (KU) will host the 2023 GenCyber Summer Camp for Teachers on July 24 - July 28, 2023. This teacher camp is supported by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is part of the GenCyber Program. The general goals of the program are: (1) Ignite, sustain, and increase awareness of K12 cybersecurity content and cybersecurity postsecondary and career opportunities for participants through year-round engagement; (2) Increase student diversity in cybersecurity college and career readiness pathways at the K-12 level; and (3) Facilitate teacher readiness within a teacher learning community to learn, develop, and deliver cybersecurity content for the K-12 classroom in collaboration with other nationwide initiatives. 

The University of Kansas was honored to host the first and only GenCyber camp in Kansas in 2016. Since then, we have hosted GenCyber camps every summer (except for the summer of 2020 due to COVID-19). The upcoming camp will be an in-person camp (following KU's COVID-19 Public Safety Guideline)

The camp will be open to all teachers at the K-12 level. We are planning to form a cohort of 30 teachers from schools in the Greater Kansas region, including but not limited to Lawrence, Topeka, the Kansas City metropolitan area, western Kansas, and the neighboring states. The goal of our camp is to enhance cybersecurity awareness in K-12 education and assist the professional development of K-12 teachers through (1) learning the GenCyber Cybersecurity Concepts and First Principles; (2) developing cybersecurity activities for curriculum use in participants' schools; and (3) learning together as cybersecurity educators and establishing an ongoing collaborative effort to create lesson plans that will be available to other schools in the country. 

The 2023 Camp

• Dates: July 24 - 28, 2023
• Schedule: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm (detailed schedule TBD)
• Location: The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045
• Cost: Free
• How to apply: Register Here
• Camp flyer

Features of the 2023 Camp

• Lectures by cybersecurity faculty in the EECS department of the University of Kansas
• Hands-on labs and programming experience with Raspberry Pi & SenseHat
• Cybersecurity education panel and discussion sessions with academic, government, and industrial practitioners
• Curriculum and lesson plan design
• Online cybersecurity coin games for a fun learning experience
• Each participant will receive a 30-hour professional development certificate endorsed by NSA and NSF
• Each participant will receive a stipend to compensate their time and costs participating in the camp

Eligibility and Logistics

All camp participants must reside in the United States and be K-12 teachers at a school in the United States. Space is limited and when the camp is full, you will be placed on a waiting list and notified when a spot becomes available.

Lunches and snacks will be provided during the camp. The stipend is to compensate the time and travel costs of the participants for attending the camp: (1) Local participants will receive a $1000 stipend; (2) Participants from Topeka and Kansas City metropolitan area will receive a $1500 stipend; (3) Participants from western Kansas and other neighboring states will receive a $1750 stipend; (4) Participants from other states (who need to fly in) will receive a $2000 stipend.

If you have any questions about the 2023 Camp, please contact the program director Dr. Drew Davidson.