K-12 Outreach
CAE IA Program: USA was re-designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance / Cyber Defense Education (CAE-IA/CD) designation December 2014. This designation is awarded to institutions after a rigorous review of programs that have demonstrated their commitment to academic excellence in Information Assurance education. USA CFITS supports the educational and research endeavors of the CAE-IA/CD program. CFITS faculty support the undergraduate Information Assurance program curriculum development and research initiatives. We have established research groups in Information Security, Computer Forensics, and Healthcare Information Systems. For more information on the USA CyberScholars program visit USA CyberScholars.
K-12 STEM Initiative: Implementation of our SoC K-12 Initiative: Math, Science, and Computing Initiative Project (4.1) is intended to increase the pool of qualified high school graduates in the area from which to recruit undergraduate students. Engaging industry partners that showed specific interest in K-12 math and science education, allowed accelerated the development of our program, with implementation in the Fall of 2012.
Partner School Field Trips: 鈥淗ands On Learning Lab Activities鈥� (HOLLA) Partner Schools agree to participate in 鈥渨hole grade鈥� CS STEM learning interventions with CFITS and the USA School of Computing. These HOLLA鈥檚 are provided at no charge to the Partner School, and deliver high quality CS STEM learning in our K鈥�12 STEM Learning Lab at Shelby Hall. This well-equipped, modern facility has a state of the art laptop PC for each student, a larger screen controlled by the SoC faculty delivering the content at the table to each group of five students, plus one 60鈥� screen at each end of the lab. Click here to view more information.
CIS Dual Enrollment in Alabama Public High Schools: CFITS is fully engaged in the broad effort to improve education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, the STEM disciplines. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over two in three new STEM related jobs will be in computing. This reality fuels our commitment to help bring about inclusion of Computer Science dual enrollment as a science requirement option for graduation in public high schools across Alabama.
K-12 Robotics: Support for robotics learning experiences in K-12 has and continues to be utilized as a tool to enhance the integration of STEM educational concepts into our schools. We continue to support such activities as BEST, FIRST, LEGO, as well as various tech fairs and summer camps. Our investigators also participate as judges and educators in many robotics educational and competitive activities.