Class Meeting Agenda Template (3-hour on-campus)

This is the standard fall-term agenda template for 3-hour on-campus class meetings. For the 2-hour summer Zoom format used with high-school students, see agenda-template-summer.md.

Each 3-hour meeting is built around four blocks: lecture, reading Q&A, an Oxford-style debate, and a hands-on activity or short student-led discussion. The debate is the anchor of the on-campus format (35% of the course grade — see debates/format.md) and the shape below places it in the middle of class, right after the first break. This mirrors how the class has actually been run — see for example the pattern in agenda.md around Meeting 8.

Two or three motifs work well. Pick whichever fits the day’s material. For Lecture 1, when there is no assigned reading and no scheduled debate, see the Lecture 1 variant at the bottom.

Motif A (default) — Lecture, break-and-debate, lecture

The primary shape. Use this whenever the day has a scheduled debate on the schedule — most weeks do.

Time	Min	Block	Notes
0:00–0:10	10	Housekeeping + reading Q&A	Return to the top reading-response threads
0:10–1:00	50	Lecture (Topic A)	Book concepts and technical framing
1:00–1:10	10	Break
1:10–1:50	40	Debate (Oxford-style)	Opening poll → arguments → audience Q&A → closing poll
1:50–2:35	45	Lecture (Topic B) + hands-on activity	See `activities/<topic>.md`
2:35–2:45	10	Break
2:45–2:55	10	Student presentation OR discussion	Optional — short unpack of the debate or a case study
2:55–3:00	5	Wrap + reading preview

Adjust the exact minutes to feel natural — the shape (debate mid-class, right after the first break) is what matters. If Topic A runs long, steal from the Topic B lecture, not from the debate.

Motif B — No-debate weeks (breakout or extended hands-on)

Some meetings don’t have a scheduled debate (e.g., topics without a debate column in index.md, or catch-up weeks). Substitute a small-group breakout for the debate slot, or extend the hands-on activity to fill that time.

Time	Min	Block	Notes
0:00–0:10	10	Housekeeping + reading Q&A
0:10–1:00	50	Lecture (Topic A)
1:00–1:10	10	Break
1:10–1:50	40	Breakout discussion (small groups) + report-back	Two prompts; groups pick one — see notes on breakouts
1:50–2:35	45	Lecture (Topic B) + hands-on activity
2:35–2:45	10	Break
2:45–2:55	10	Student presentation OR discussion
2:55–3:00	5	Wrap + reading preview

Motif C (optional) — Frontloaded lecture for technical machinery

Best when the day introduces new technical machinery students need to absorb before they can meaningfully debate or discuss (e.g., BGP, DNS, crypto primitives, OAuth flows). Collapses reading Q&A into the lecture and pushes discussion to the back half.

Time	Min	Block	Notes
0:00–0:10	10	Housekeeping + reading Q&A quick hits
0:10–1:15	65	Lecture (deep technical)	Long single lecture — new machinery
1:15–1:25	10	Break
1:25–2:10	45	Hands-on activity	Apply the machinery — see `activities/<topic>.md`
2:10–2:50	40	Debate (Oxford-style) OR breakout
2:50–3:00	10	Break-adjacent wrap + reading preview

Lecture 1 variant (no reading, no debate)

The first meeting has no assigned reading and no scheduled debate. Substitute the reading Q&A + debate slots with introductions, a syllabus tour, and a get-to-know discussion.

Time	Min	Block	Notes
0:00–0:20	20	Introductions + expectations	Go around the room — background, why this course
0:20–1:00	40	Syllabus tour	Grading (40/35/20/5), AI policy, debates, labs, exams
1:00–1:10	10	Break
1:10–2:10	60	Lecture 1: Overview + threat modeling	“Why Cryptosystems Fail” + “Reflections on Trusting Trust” framing
2:10–2:20	10	Break
2:20–2:50	30	Get-to-know discussion / current events	Small groups pick a recent security-in-the-news story
2:50–3:00	10	Wrap + Lecture 2 reading preview + debate sign-up	Point students at debates/format.md

Notes on adaptation

Housekeeping

Attendance, deadlines, upcoming assignment due dates, exam logistics (permitted materials, dates — see syllabus §Exams).
Return to any recurring reading-response threads worth surfacing.
Flag any change to the day’s motif (e.g., “no debate today — we’re running Motif B”).

Reading Q&A

Students post reading responses ahead of class. Use the Q&A slot to work through the most common questions or points of confusion, not to summarize the reading. On Motif C days, compress this to “quick hits” and roll the substantive discussion into the lecture.

Debates (Motif A default)

Format: Oxford-style — see the full rubric and structure at debates/format.md.
When: Right after the first break, roughly the 1:10–1:50 slot. Placing the debate mid-class keeps energy up and lets the second lecture build on ideas surfaced during argument.
Topic list: each meeting’s debate topic is linked from the In-Class Activity column of the schedule (e.g., debates/data-breach.md, debates/backdoors.md, debates/cfaa.md).
Grading: the debate is 35% of the course grade. Grade on the quality of contribution, not which side “wins” the poll.
Running it: open with the audience poll, keep opening-argument timings honest (10 / 15 / 5), reserve the last 10 minutes for audience Q&A, close with the second poll.

Hands-on activities

Weeks with a heavy technical activity (BGP, DNS, OAuth, cert chains, web tracking) may need the full 45 minutes bundled with the Topic B lecture; lighter case-study activities can be 30 and reclaim time for a longer student discussion at 2:45.

Breakouts (Motif B and Motif C fallback)

For no-debate weeks, use two prompts and let small groups pick one. Report back at the end. When the parallel breakout docs exist under docs/breakouts/<topic>.md, link directly from your day’s agenda entry.

Breaks

Two 10-minute breaks work well for a 3-hour block. Move them earlier or later depending on which activity is running long, but keep the mid-class break immediately before the debate — students come back sharper.

Cross-reference

Schedule (all 18 topics, readings, activities, debate links): ../index.md
Syllabus (grading, AI policy, exam rules): syllabus.md
Debate rubric: debates/format.md
Past-meeting logs (for pacing calibration): agenda.md