Sixth graders from Sandy Run Middle School in Upper Dublin attended a Cyber Awareness Café event on Friday, which was created to give students a fun, educational and open forum for discussing their transition into an online world. 

The event included informational videos, as well as question-and-answer sessions focused on helping students identify and avoid situations that could threaten their safety in an online world. 

The event was spearheaded by Stephanie Colletti, a family and consumer sciences (FCS) teacher at Sandy Run. 

“While many people still think of FCS as simply ‘Stitch and Stir,’ this is overly simplified. FCS at the middle school now teaches budgeting and investing, unit pricing, career research, ages and stages of child development, use of technology / social media, and many other ‘real world’ applicable skill sets in addition to cooking, sewing and nutrition,” Colletti said.

Texting, social networking, email, online gaming, chat, music downloading, web surfing, and other forms of wired and wireless communication are now a regular part of not only our children’s lives but our lives as well. In light of recent events, FCS classes have increased our emphasis on educating students on how social media works, proper net etiquette, and overall cyber awareness, Colletti said.

“Students learned to think before they post,” she added.

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Information courtesy of Erica Lamberg, PTO Publicity Chair, Sandy Run Middle School