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, Technology
• Grade Level : 6-8
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Networks and The Internet
• Computer Science Principles:
  • Communicating About Computing
• Materials:
  • Website, https://curriculum.code.org/csf-19/coursec/2/#powerful-passwords2
• Considerations:
  • Some schools will not want students to allow students to change passwords.

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. Three reasons why I shouldn’t share my password are:
2. I have three strategies to make a strong password, they are:
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

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 Introducing 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

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REVIEW

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