Wysulko, C., Xu, Z., Dawson, K., Antonenko, P. & Koh, D.H. (2022, April 21-25). Using a Comic Book to Engage Students in a Cryptology and Cybersecurity Curriculum. [Paper presentation]. American Educational Research Association.
Women and minority groups are underrepresented in the field of cybersecurity. Seen as a pipeline issue, cultivating STEM interest using educational efforts aimed at these groups may help with engagement and retention in STEM fields. We developed a cryptology and cybersecurity curriculum designed for grades 3-5 and targeted towards girls and minority groups. The design of the curriculum draws on engagement theory and anchored instruction to contextualize STEM content within a comic book, with the intent of encouraging and sustaining engagement. This study explores student perceptions of using the comic book over two iterative pilots. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that students saw the comic book as a “macrocontext” for the whole curriculum, but many required reading support.