A "Divergent"-Themed CTF and Urban Race for Introducing Security and Cryptography

There is a recognized shortage of students who are interested in learning computer and network security. One of the underlying reasons for this is a lack of awareness and motivation to study the subject. In order to tackle this problem, we have developed an introductory cryptography and security curriculum that attempts to inspire students to pursue this career path.

Towards this end, the curriculum we have designed motivates the importance of the field and contains a variety of activities intended not only to teach students basic concepts, but also allow them to develop technical skills in a fun and engaging manner. In particular, we employ a novel set of capture-the-flag (CTF) exercises and a physical activity based on an urban race, both of which are tied into a fictional story that students act out. The storyline follows a book series that many young adults of this generation are familiar with: the Divergent books written by Veronica Roth [1]. Using this approach, we have successfully delivered our curriculum at multiple schools throughout Oregon.