OVERVIEW

Activity Overview:

This activity teaches students the importance of creating a safe and secure password. In addition, students will also make their own password using a set of guidelines. The passwords they create may be used for accessing their school computers, websites or social media.

Meta description

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Reading/Language Arts, Technology
• Grade Level : 3-5
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Networks and The Internet
• Computer Science Principles:
  • Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture, Collaborating Around Computing, Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems
• Materials:
  • Website, Computer
• Considerations:
  • Double check sites to make sure they are still active, adapt this to best fit your classroom and/or space. If your students are more active you can make this into a game!

Lesson Plan

Overview

This activity teaches students the importance of creating a safe and secure password. In addition, students will also make their own password using a set of guidelines. The passwords they create may be used for accessing their school computers, websites or social media.

ASSESSMENT PRE/POST-TEST

What is a password? Why are passwords important on the internet? What are Some Dos and Don’ts to a Password?

OBJECTIVES

What is a password? Why are passwords important on the internet? What are Some Dos and Don’ts to a Password?

CATCH/HOOK

How many of you use smart devices? (wait for show of hands, give examples of smart devices if needed) How many of you have special locks, patterns or codes on those devices? Well have you ever thought of someone just taking that device and keeping it as their own? Well it is very possible if you didn’t know! Many of us have smart devices that are dear to us, and we protect that as much as we can. It holds so much of our personal information that we want to make sure that no one can have easy access to it.

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

Students will learn rules to a safe password as well as make their own. Dos and Don’ts of a Password (25 Minutes) As a class, have students guess if a rule to making a password is a “do” or a “don’t”. Rules can be found at https://curriculum.code.org/csf-19/coursec/2/#powerful-passwords2 Individually, students then create their own password. The aim is to learn which password combinations are the hardest to guess or crack. Students can write down their favorite number, cartoon character’s name, food, and a random symbol if they feel stuck. As students create their own passwords, start typing these into one of the following websites to see how long it would take for their passwords to be hacked. https://howsecureismypassword.net OR https://www.experte.com/password-check , enter each password and see the result. As you start typing the passwords, challenge the students whose passwords have been cracked to see if they could come up with a more complex password.

Supplements

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

REVIEW

Objective #1 - What is a Password? Have the students go into groups and designate one student to write down their concluded answer. Ask groups what a password is. Objective #2 - Why are Passwords Important on the Internet? Remaining in their groups, have students give three reasons as to why passwords are important in the context of the Internet. Objective #3 - What are Some Dos and Don’ts to a Password? This objective is assessed from the last part of the activity with group discussion and example scenarios. This will give the students an opportunity to apply what they know.

The activity will be based on class and small group discussion with the following questions: Ask the students if, based on this activity, they think they should change some of their passwords? If yes, what strategies could they use to make them stronger? Why do you think some passwords were easier to crack than others? Which ones had the longest standing time? What did you notice about these passwords? Are there rules that you feel stuck with you regarding passwords and protection of your personal information? What other things could you relate to security? Where do you think you may see this in the real world?

Post-Assessment Exit Ticket: Group or individual activity Scenario 1 Amy forgets their phone on the bus. IF someone found it and figured out their password to unlock it, THEN what could happen?

Scenario 2 Henry writes their email address in their notebook and leaves it open while they go to the bathroom. IF someone saw Henry’s email address and figured out their email password, THEN what could happen?

You can have some more in depth discussion about the scenarios listed above. Examples: Why is it important to protect your information? What would be the consequences of not protecting your information? What are real world consequences that could happen? -Identity theft, sharing of information to the wrong people etc.

STANDARDS