PI:  Doug Jacobson

Summary: IT-Adventures is an innovative program to engage Iowa high school students in exploring and experimenting with information technology (IT) through educational content delivery, competitive events, and service learning projects. IT-Adventures is a partnership forged between Iowa State University’s Information Assurance Center, the Technology Association of Iowa, the Iowa chapter of InfraGard and Iowa businesses. The program is dedicated to increasing interest and awareness of information technology among high school students across the state in many different learning areas including cyber defense, robotics and game design programming. The program uses an inquiry-based learning approach which allows students to explore IT in a non-threatening experimental environment. This method will increase the number of high school students who are interested in IT; increase the number of undergraduates enrolling to study IT in community colleges and four-year institutions; and increase the number of IT graduates who enter the work force. Projections made by a recent Iowa Department of Economic Development study says there will not be enough IT graduates to fill available IT jobs in the state and an action needs to be taken to change this course and increase the production of IT knowledge workers for the state, as well as the nation. IT-Adventures is open to any group of high school students in the state of Iowa interested in gaining knowledge about IT. Because this program has open enrollment and incurs no cost to the youth or the school, the sole means of funding the program is sponsorships from corporations, foundations and even individuals who share the vision and mission which is to raise high school students’ awareness of and interest in IT.