What is IT-Adventures?
IT-Adventures is an innovative program that engages Iowa high school students in exploration and experimentation with information technology (IT) through material delivery, competitive events and service learning projects. It is a partnership forged between Iowa State University’s Information Assurance Center, the Iowa Department of Economic Development, 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 and stem the downward curve of students selecting IT as a career.
The foundation of the program is the formation of IT-Clubs in high schools across Iowa. The clubs can be focused on one or all content areas depending upon the interest of the students and advisors. Content areas for the coming year are cyber defense, game design and robotics.
The IT Club provides an avenue for students to gain access to learning materials from Iowa State University, experiment with provided equipment, and ask questions of IT professionals, university faculty, college students and other high school students.
The capstone event for the students participating in the club is participation in the IT-Olympics where they have an opportunity to showcase the knowledge they have gained over the past year.
IT-Adventures, a direct outgrowth of our successful pilot program of high school cyber defense competitions, is open to any group of high school students in the state of Iowa interested in having fun with and gaining knowledge of IT.
