Published June 11 2025
This summer, CyberMontana presents a new opportunity for Montana high school teachers to expand their cybersecurity teaching skills through the GenCyber Teacher Camp hosted at Missoula College from July 14 to July 18, 8am – 5pm.
At this summer camp, up to 20 Montana teachers will learn about core cybersecurity teaching methods and concepts, develop lesson plans and prepare to integrate new cybersecurity content into their fall classes. With these latest skills, you can provide new opportunities for your students. This program offers the ability to earn three graduate credits through University of Montana and/or 60 credits from the Montana Office of Public Instruction.
The camp will be supported by pre and post camp opportunities that will introduce participants to key concepts for the camp and provide support and mentorship as participants work to integrate camp content into their lesson planning.
The camp will be taught by CyberMontana Director and Missoula College Assistant Professor in Cybersecurity Dianne Burke. Burke. She was also recently awarded a spot on the Security Industry Association Women in Security Forum Power 100.
Attendance at the event is fully supported by CyberMontana and National Security Administration GenCyber grant funding, with attendees receiving a $500 attendance stipend. Attendees from outside of the Missoula area will also receive reimbursement for food costs. and funds to cover travel to and from the conference.
All high school faculty, teachers and administrators, who are interested in integrating cybersecurity content into their teaching are eligible to attend the camp. To apply, complete this application. The application does include an essay (up to one page). This essay asks you to share these details:
- Component 1: Introduce yourself with your name, school's name, grade level, subject that you teach (or the capacity in which you serve).
- Component 2: Share why you want to participate in Missoula's GenCyber 2025 Teacher Camp and what makes you a good candidate for the program. Include your personal motivation for applying for this program, and how you plan to incorporate this into your curriculum.
This summer will be the first time that this learning opportunity will be available to Montana teachers. The camp is part of CyberMontana’s broader efforts to enhance cybersecurity education and opportunities across Montana, an effort which also includes career fairs for cybersecurity students, summer camps tailored to middle and high school students interested in cybersecurity, opportunities for high school students to earn a Certificate of Technical Studies in Cybersecurity through Missoula College, and other professional development opportunities for cybersecurity educators.
Over the five days of the conference, teachers will learn about the six core GenCyber core concepts and how to apply and teach them within high school courses to give students basic competencies in cybersecurity concepts and prepare them for future careers in this growing field. The six GenCyber concepts include defense in depth, confidentiality, integrity, availability, thinking like an adversary, and keeping it simple.
Defense in depth involves implementing multiple layers of security to prevent intrusions and cyberattacks while confidentiality focuses on ensuring that information is only accessible to authorized people and systems.
Maintaining integrity ensures that data remains complete, accurate and unaltered. To maintain integrity, companies and organizations will implement systems to prevent data tampering or unauthorized modifications.
Availability requires that users have the systems and data they need available when they need it. This involves protecting against cyber-attacks, hardware failures and other incidents that would disrupt service by maintaining redundancy and backup systems.
Thinking like an adversary involves approaching cybersecurity through the mindset of a hacker or cyber threat, structuring your security approach around understanding how an attacker would exploit your system and filling gaps that they might exploit.
The final concept is to keep cybersecurity techniques simple by avoiding unnecessary complexities that could introduce additional vulnerabilities or hinder security management.
The pre-camp activities will be held online via zoom. will ensure participants are prepared for the camp by familiarizing them with these concepts:
• June 11 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Program Overview; Course Shell; US Cyber Range; TestOut Platform; Syllabus and Schedule. 1 additional hour of independent work.
• June 18 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Confidentiality and Integrity in Cybersecurity; Hands-On Activities. 1 additional hour of independent work.
• June 25 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Availability and Defense in Depth in Cybersecurity: HandsOn Activities. 1 additional hour of independent work.
• July 2 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Adversarial Thinking and Simplicity in Cybersecurity; HandsOn Activities. 1 additional hour of independent work.
• July 9 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. – Computer Ethics; Hands-On Activities. 1 additional hour of independent work.
The post-camp activities will also be held online via Zoom and will involve participants sharing lesson plans and discussing the launch of the fall cybersecurity components of their classes.
- July 30 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Lesson Plan Sharing and Discussion. 3 additional hours independent work.
- September 10 6:00p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Lesson Plan Sharing and Discussion. 3 additional hours independent work.
- October TBD (16 or 17)– Capture the Flag online activity, Program Feedback, Next Steps
To apply, please fill out this application by clicking this link.