How to run a Cyber Discovery club

A club leader is someone who provides students with guidance, motivation and support throughout the Cyber Discovery programme. One way of doing this is by setting up an extracurricular club.

A Cyber Discovery club has been shown to significantly support students in their learning, by giving them access to computers and also a dedicated time and place to work through the challenges with like-minded individuals.

All the material needed to run a successful Cyber Discovery club exists within the four tools/phases of the programme. The learning tools are effectively step by step guides that allow students to work on challenges by themselves and at their own pace. Find out more about the programme phases here.

Whether you are a careers advisor, head of year or languages teacher, we have given you everything you need to run a successful club and support students that are interested in the programme.

If you have some background knowledge in cyber security:

• You will have access to all the learning material whilst each stage is open. This can allow you to create small teaching modules or demonstrations and structure your sessions. Please note that club leader access to each stage will be restricted at the same time as the students.

If you have no background knowledge in the subject area:

• Have a go at some challenges that will be similar to what students work on when CyberStart Assess opens. You can trial some challenges here.
• Encourage students to independently research and work together to solve challenges. There are plenty of resources on our social channels and blog as well as online.
• Your role is to act as a facilitator. The tools in the programme are effectively step by step guides which mean students of all capabilities can progress at their own pace.
• When students approach a challenge, ensure they read the briefing carefully and use the hints available to help.

What equipment do I need?

CyberStart Assess and the first five levels of CyberStart Game can be run on a modern browser e.g. the latest version of Chrome or Firefox. The majority of these challenges can be completed with normal browser functionality, but for some challenges you will require access to the browser developer tools, which are typically easily enabled. In some instances you may also require scripting capabilities if you make it to the higher level challenges.

A heavily restricted computer will allow you to complete many challenges, but to truly explore cyber security you will need some advanced access and tools. If browser developer tools and scripting tools are blocked or restricted, some challenges will not be completable.

For students that make it to more advanced content they will require a virtual machine, which is installed with all the tools required to complete the programme. Instructions on how to setup the software and the virtual machine will be made available at the required stage. Student computers will need to be able to run VMWare Player or VirtualBox on a Windows or Mac device respectively.

Active encouragement of teamwork and resilience has led to students progressing further in the programme than they would do on their own. If you think you could run a Cyber Discovery club, please register your interest here.