Providing Early Access to Cybersecurity and Computing through Culturally Relevant Gaming

In this workshop, we engage participants as learners to introduce computer science and cybersecurity concepts in culturally affirming ways. Games hold a universal presence in the human experience across cultures with over 227 million gamers across the United States and more than two billion worldwide, thus creating a billion-dollar video game industry [1], [2]. It has the potential to serve as a leveler because Black students are more likely to attend schools that do not offer introductory computer science courses. Without early exposure, Black students are less likely to pursue these pathways or have the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to experience success. Therefore, disparities across racial lines at the collegiate level and within computing careers are a direct result of limited access to these courses, programs, and training within K-12 contexts. This interactive session intends to combat the educational divide and provide a space for open dialogue around cybersecurity and coding. We provide background information on disparities in the field and introduce fundamentals to coding and cybersecurity. We use the Minecraft Education platform to share game-based learning strategies and how they can be applied more broadly as a solution to help close gaps. Our final activity is an open dialogue connecting these concepts to classrooms and careers - understanding that there are over 350,000 vacancies in the U.S. and 2.72 million globally in computer science-related fields.