Lynhaven Elementary School

CUSD Students Gain Cyber Savvy with SJSU CyberSpartans

Focus is digital citizenship, cyber safety in after school partnership with San Jose State

“Teaching students to think more about how they’re engaging with technology is a crucial life skill that our teachers reinforce daily,” said District Superintendent Shelly Viramontez.  “Through our Expanded Learning Department, the SJSU Cyber Spartans partnership enhances and expands these lessons into the after school hours.”

Every Wednesday, at Sherman Oaks, Blackford, Rosemary, and Lynhaven schools, SJSU Cyber Spartans students teach and mentor after school students in grades 3-5. They use the cyber security curriculum that the university students created, with lessons that cover coding, cyber security, and digital citizenship. 

Cyber Spartans is a STEM program developed to educate and explore aspects of the technology fields that are desperately needed in the IT world.

While participating in Cyber Spartans, students learn everything from basic electronics to beginning coding with projects designed to challenge and stimulate their thinking. The ultimate goal of Cyber Spartans is to help kids have fun in an educational way. By customizing activities that tack onto what they are already learning in their school curriculum, their knowledge of the subject matter solidifies, all while developing a variety of important social skills.

"This is so consistent with our desire to provide our students with real world challenges," Viramontez said. "They become truly engaged in learning when they see the relevance of what they’re studying and how it supports their aspirations.”