Lesson Plan

Courses

• Grades 3-12
• Courses 3rd grade – 12th grade

Materials

• 3 cellphones, tablets, or computers
• Internet connection
• Pizza box (to simulate the security box)
• Treasure (something to place in the box)

Description

In this activity, students can experiment in an introductory way with Protobject, learning visual programming and computer science with a safe and playful device.

Educational Objectives

• Understand the concepts of “visual programming” and “prototype.”
• Create a technological object (prototype) using a device.
• Identify relationships between technology and the surrounding world.
• Evaluate personal and peer work in individual or team tasks.
• Engage in dialogue and reflection on ideas for improvement.

Beginning (10 minutes)

Welcome the students to the class and briefly introduce the day’s activity:

Today, we are going to do a very fun activity: creating a security box with a special alarm.

Martín and Juan are two brothers who have a treasure. They keep it in a security box with a special alarm. Each of them has a button. To deactivate the alarm, they need to press both buttons at the same time. This way, if someone stole a button from one of them, they couldn’t deactivate the alarm without the other button.

We will start the class by providing technical knowledge to the students for meaningful learning of the practical activity.

To begin the class, we can start with a question:
Has anyone heard about Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is like a shield that protects your computer, your phone, and your data from bad people who want to steal or harm them.

In the world, there are good people and bad people. Some bad people use computer viruses to steal or damage your computer or phone. Some good people use cybersecurity to protect themselves or help others.

Did you know that one of the best ways to protect yourself is to use strong passwords? Do you know why?

On the Internet, we have many accounts that store our information, like our name, email, or photos. These accounts have a secret key called a password. A strong password is one that nobody can easily guess or break, because if someone does, they can steal or harm you. Imagine having a safe where you keep your favorite toys, your money, and your secrets. To open the safe, you need to know a password that only you know. If your password is too simple, like your name or your birthdate, someone could guess it and open the safe without your permission. They could then steal your things, damage them, or read your secrets. You wouldn’t like that, would you? That’s why it’s important to have a hard-to-guess password and not share it with anyone. This way, you can protect your safe and what’s inside it.

What if a villain steals your password? Did you know there are other ways to improve security, even if someone steals your password?

This is two-factor authentication, which is like a second password that helps you protect your online account. For example, if you want to access your email account, you first enter your regular password. Then, you receive a message on your phone or email with a code that you also have to enter. That code is the two-factor authentication. This way, you make sure that no one else can access your account even if they know your regular password.

The security box we are going to make today works a bit like two-factor authentication. If someone steals Martin’s button, they can’t deactivate the alarm without Juan’s button. That way, the treasure is much safer!

Finally, to initiate the prototyping process and make them feel like the heroes of their learning, ask them:
Who wants to learn to prototype such a special security box and be a hero today?

To start the process, it’s essential to understand how the logical operator AND works.

Let’s remember that booleans are another type of logical data that has two possible values:

TRUE (true)
FALSE (false)

When we create conditionals, we are always testing conditions: if this is true (TRUE), then do this, otherwise (FALSE) do something else.

AND helps us manage multiple conditions at the same time.

It works like this:

AND (All conditions must be met)

Juanita is a woman AND Pedro is a man = TRUE
Juanita is a woman AND Pedro is a woman = FALSE

(See examples in the activity)

Development (20-30 minutes)

Connect our devices to the Protobject platform. This will allow us to add various components on different devices to build a security box that can (de)activate an alarm through their interaction.

To perform the practical part of the activity, follow the steps in the “Prototyping” section. Remember to experiment on your own beforehand before asking students to experiment with Protobject. This way, you can anticipate any questions that may arise from the students.

Closure (5-10 minutes)

Now that you have completed the activity, interact with the students based on the following points:

Is anyone interested in becoming a programmer in the field of cybersecurity in the future?
In what other ways could we create a security box?
What types of methods do you know for dealing with malicious attacks caused by malicious agents who want to steal our information?