OVERVIEW

Activity Overview:

Middle School Students love to share everything-including their water bottles, their sense of humor and even their passwords. This lesson demonstrates why passwords shouldnt be shared and furthermore the importance of a strong password. It also teaches how to create a strong password!

Meta description

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Reading/Language Arts, Technology
• Grade Level : 6-8
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Networks and The Internet
• Computer Science Principles:
  • Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture, Collaborating Around Computing, Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems, Communicating About Computing
• Materials:
  • Website
• Considerations:
  • YES-please dont have students create such complex passwords, they forget them! As the person who does all the password resets, this is very important!

Lesson Plan

Overview

Middle School Students love to share everything-including their water bottles, their sense of humor and even their passwords. This lesson demonstrates why passwords shouldnt be shared and furthermore the importance of a strong password. It also teaches how to create a strong password!

ASSESSMENT PRE/POST-TEST

1. I can give three reasons why I shouldnt share my password.
2. I have three strategies to make a strong password.
3. Being a smart digital citizen means passwords are important because:

OBJECTIVES

1-Understand the importance of NOT sharing passwords. 2-Create a strong password. 3-Make an informed decision when asked to share a password.

CATCH/HOOK

Have students lock their computers. Tell students to trade computers with the person sitting next to them. Tell students to guess the person’s password. (Note-my district uses the same formula for all preset passwords). Engage in a discussion of this experience.

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

Return laptops to original owner. IMPORTANCE OF PASSWORD Ask-how did that feel knowing someone was trying to unlock your laptop?
Ask-how would someone else be able to unlock your laptop? Ask-for personal stories if comfortable. HOW TO CREATE A STRONG PASSWORD Introduce Common Sense Media. Have students rely on their background information to remember what a .org means. Have students spend a few minutes browsing Common Sense Media website looking for authors, dates, biases.
Participate in the Do’s and Dont’s of a password: https://curriculum.code.org/csf-19/coursec/2/#powerful-passwords2 Go through the entire activity. RESPONSIBLE DIGITAL CITIZEN Engage in a small debate: which is more important- Not hacking someone’s password OR creating a strong password. This debate will show both are equally important!

Supplements

Any items in this section are the property & under the license of their respective owners.

REVIEW

IF there is time, divide into four teams. Have each time create a password, then use: https://www.experte.com/password-check to see which team has the strongest password-hopefully ALL teams will have strong passwords!

STANDARDS