“Hacktopia” ignites cyber passion in Arkansas for STEM-focused middle schoolers

Part I: LISA Academy students take top honors in statewide competition while building real-world cybersecurity skills

By David Hehemann

Pine Bluff, Ark. – May 21, 2025 –Ethical hacking, lock-picking and phishing prevention – these are just some of the activities middle school students at several LISA Academy schools in Arkansas have been engaging in. Both LISA Academy Online and LISA Academy Rogers-Bentonville participated last month in the third annual “Hacktopia” program.

“Hacktopia is a cybersecurity education program designed to engage middle school students across the state through interactive learning and entertaining challenges,” said James Houston, executive director for Enterceptor, the professional development training program for teachers that hosts Hacktopia. “The four-week lesson plan culminates in a two-part competition. This year, we had 40 participating schools and were just shy of 460 students.”

In late April, students from the two LISA Academy schools made it to the competition’s final round during which five-player teams from eight schools competed in a cyber showdown to determine which team had the savviest hackers.

The team from LISA Academy Rogers-Bentonville took first place. Led by Yerjan Kazbyek, a teacher of computer science, the team included sixth graders Vivaan Shivhare and Bentley Long and seventh grader Sri Prem Reddy Bommareddy.

Long said highlights of the experience included solving nonogram logic puzzles, developing cipher algorithms for encrypting or decrypting data, learning techniques to fend off hackers, and even just playing Pac-Man.

“I liked the online part of the Hacktopia competition the most because I was challenged to use logic to figure out ways to answer the problems,” said Shivhare. “For example, I had to think in creative ways to trick an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot. The most surprising thing I learned while preparing for Hacktopia is that you can trick AI large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT into giving sensitive information.”

Bommareddy recommends peers consider participating in future Hacktopia programming to experience the excitement of competing in a fun and engaging atmosphere.

According to a recent Gallup and Walton Family Foundation survey, only 3% of Gen Z middle and high school students in the Heartland feel “extremely” prepared to use AI in their future jobs, highlighting the importance of early, hands-on STEM programs like Hacktopia in bridging this readiness gap.

More than 40 of the top students representing eight school districts across the state recently gathered at the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative for the “Hacktopia” state finals in Pine Bluff.

Bethany Ratermann, senior director of communications for LISA Academy Public Charter Schools, said the LISA school system embraces AI. She credits the academy’s superintendent, Dr. Fatih Bogrek, with being proactive about finding ways students can have hands-on training in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) innovations to prepare them for their future careers.

“Hacktopia is an example of an event where students can try out the skills they have been learning in the classroom,” Ratermann said. “We don’t want them to be playing catch up once they graduate. We want them to be ahead of the game – that’s why we are training them, giving  them experience and simply letting them have fun in the field. STEM is our passion, and this was one of those avenues where we felt our students could really put STEM into action.”

It was early March when Sherrill Williams, STEM coordinator and computer science teacher for LISA Academy Online School, started teaching the Hacktopia curriculum to about 65 students. Looking back, she said she has grown as a teacher thanks to participation in the program.

“This was an ideal way to get away from the conceptual and delve into more hands-on activities during class,” she said. “I love how the Hacktopia organizers selected the project types. This gave me ideas as a computer science teacher for what assignments for logic or algorithms could look like.”

Williams said the Hacktopia curriculum revealed talents some of the students might otherwise not have known they possessed. Furthermore, going through the Hacktopia lesson plans opened some students’ eyes to concepts they had previously discussed. After the hands-on lessons, some concepts suddenly “clicked,” she said.

“For example, earlier in the year our students had been learning Linux, a widely used operating system that runs everything from smartphones to many of the world’s websites,” said the STEM teacher. “One student didn’t have the best grades. But when he encountered the Hacktopia lesson on Linux, he lit up. He was even able to explain and break down the processes for the other students.”

Williams, who graduated with a degree in physics, said she can attest that conceptual learning is important. However, she sees that for many students, tactile learning is equally important.

“Touching and witnessing the science in action, experiencing it – this is key,” she said.

“This type of learning often provides those ‘aha’ moments. It allows you to see the conceptual in action, which makes all the difference for some people.”

Ratermann credits Williams with being the ideal teacher for leading LISA Online’s Hacktopia initiative given her strong background in computer science and experience leading the school’s STEM Festival.

“Ms. Williams has students in her class that are affluent, as well as students on the other end of the economic-social spectrum,” she said. “I love the concept that she was teaching all our students grit.”

She encourages them not to give up and emphasizes teamwork. She worked hard to get them to coalesce together regardless of background. It didn’t matter that the students had different interests and strengths – they were able to pull together. Everybody contributed to the team effort. I think that’s powerful learning.”