AWS Data Center Tour 2:
Keeping Data Safe and Sustainable

Students gain exposure to the careers of the future as they discover how careers at Amazon Web Services and data centers keep your data protected, available at all times, and sustainable.

On the Keeping Data Safe and Sustainable tour, students will explore how data centers keep their data safe and sustainable so they don’t have to worry about uploading their information to the cloud. Students will learn how data centers use a natural process to keep servers from overheating, how redundancy and sensors ensure data is always available, cyber and physical security measures to keep data protected, and sustainability efforts to protect the environment.

In this tour, students explore the following careers: Data Center Engineer Operator (DCEO), control technician, cybersecurity specialist, and sustainability specialist.

The 45 minute, interactive tour is aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards. The Teacher Toolkit includes a facilitation guide, worksheets, and other resources to support learning during the tour. Recommended for grades 3+.

Keeping Data Safe and Sustainable is aligned to the following CSTA standards.

• 1B-IC-18 Discuss computing technologies that have changed the world, and express how those technologies influence, and are influenced by, cultural practices.
• 1B-CS-01 Describe how internal and external parts of computing devices function to form a system.
• 1B-CS-02 Model how computer hardware and software work together as a system to accomplish tasks.
• 2-NI-05 Explain how physical and digital security measures protect electronic information.
• 3A-NI-05 Give examples to illustrate how sensitive data can be affected by malware and other attacks.
• 3A-IC-24 Evaluate the ways computing impacts personal, ethical, social, economic, and cultural practices.

The tour is aligned to the following Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices.

• Crosscutting Concept: Cause and Effect Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted.
• Crosscutting Concept: Systems and System Models A system is an organized group of related objects or components; models can be used for understanding and predicting the behavior of systems.
• Crosscutting Concept: Energy and Matter Tracking energy and matter flows, into, out of, and within systems helps one understand their system’s behavior.
• 4-PS3-2 Energy Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
• 4-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.
• 4-ESS3-2 Earth and Human Activity Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
• 5-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
• MS-ESS2-4 Develop a model to describe the cycling of water through Earth’s systems driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
• MS-ESS3-3 Earth and Human Activity Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
• MS-ESS3-4 Earth and Human Activity Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
• MS-ESS3-5 Earth and Human Activity Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
• MS-PS3-3 Energy Apply scientific principles to design, construct, and test a device that either minimizes or maximizes thermal energy transfer.
• MS-ESS3-2 Earth and Human Activity Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
• MS-ETS1-1 Engineering Design Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
• HS-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
  HS-ESS3-4 Earth and Human Activity Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
• HS-ESS3-1 Earth and Human Activity Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
• HS-PS3-4Energy Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that the transfer of thermal energy when two components of different temperature are combined within a closed system results in a more uniform energy distribution among the components in the system (second law of thermodynamics).
• HS-ETS1-3 Engineering Design Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.

Kahoot!: The fun, game-like tour is available for FREE on Kahoot! to all interested classrooms and families. Students can play against each other while learning about data safety and sustainability at Amazon Web Services (AWS). No account required.