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Safety and security education are important part of technology related education, because of recent number of increase in safety and security related incidents. Game based learning is an emerging and rapidly advancing forms of computer-assisted instruction. Game based learning for safety and security education enables students to learn concepts and skills without the risk of physical injury and security breach. In this paper, a pedestal grinder safety game and physical security game have been developed using industrial standard modeling and game development software. The average score of the knowledge test of grinder safety game was 82%, which is higher than traditional lecture only instruction method. In addition, the survey of physical security game shows 84% average satisfaction ratio from high school students who played the game during the summer camp. The results of these studies indicated that game based learning method can enhance students’ learning without potential harm to the students. 

Cybersecurity workforce development is the key to protecting information and information systems, and yet more than 30% of companies are short on security expertise. To address this need, the current authors have developed four cybersecurity education games to teach social engineering, secure online behavior, cyber defense methods, and cybersecurity first principles. These games are intended to recruit the next generation cybersecurity workforce by developing an innovative cybersecurity curriculum and pedagogical methods to provide high school students with hands-on activities in a game-based learning environment. Purdue University Northwest (PNW) offered high school summer camps for 181 high school students in June of 2016 and June of 2017. Out of 181 high school participants, 107 were underrepresented minority students, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. To evaluate the effectiveness of the cybersecurity education games, post-camp surveys were conducted with 154 camp participants. The survey results indicated that the games were very effective in cybersecurity awareness training. Furthermore, the cybersecurity education games were more effective for male students than female students in raising student interest in computer science and cybersecurity. 

Game based learning is a new game play mechanism that the players explore various aspects of game play in a learning context designed by the instructor or the game designer. Nevertheless, general acceptance of game based learning as a new learning paradigm was deferred by a lack of well-controlled, large sample efficacy studies. To address the increasing need of cybersecurity workforce, this paper introduces a game based learning method for high school cybersecurity education. Purdue University Northwest launched GenCyber high school summer camps to about 200 high school students in Chicago metropolitan area. The survey conducted after the summer camp indicated that the game based learning for cybersecurity education was very effective in cybersecurity awareness training. Further analysis of survey data revealed that there is a gender difference in raising students’ interests in cybersecurity and computer science education using game based learning method.