Curriculum
Twenty-First Century Challenges: Grades 6-8
Information Highways
Download Student Sheet(s) for printout in PDF format.
Read a Letter to Educators about twenty-first century challenges from CyberSmart!
Overview
Students model how information travels on the Internet and discover how the design of the Internet allows it to grow easily and never completely break down.
Objectives
- Define the Internet as a worldwide network of networks
- Work with other students to model a portion of the Internet
- Identify ways to connect to the Internet
- Explain how packets and routers interact
National Educational Technology Standards for Students © 2007
Source: International Society for Technology in Education- Technology Operations and Concepts
- understand and use technology systems.
Home Connection
Download the Home Connection sheet related to this lesson.
Site Preview
No Internet site is used in this lesson.
Materials
- Activity sheets (3)
- String (48, 4-ft. pieces); paper drinking straws (10, cut into 1-in. pieces); scissors; fine-line markers
Introduce
- Place two students at the center of the room with each student holding one end of a length of string. Have students imagine that their classmates are computers.
- To assess prior knowledge, ask: What does the string represent?
Teach 1
- Distribute Activity Sheet 1 for students to read.
- Point out that the metaphor of the information highway is not a perfect one. While roads and highways are all located on the earth's surface, some Internet connections lie at the ocean bottom or travel through the atmosphere.
- Explain that every computer connected to the Internet is part of a network. A single home computer is part of its Internet Service Provider's network.
- Point out that some highways can handle more vehicles per hour than others. Similarly, some Internet connections can handle more packets than others. Such connections are said to have a high "bandwidth." In other words, the higher the bandwidth, the faster information moves. As bandwidth increases, streaming video and faster downloading will become more available.
Teach 2
- Distribute Activity Sheet 2.
- With a supply of markers, take the class to an open area where they can safely create their model.
- Read the directions to the class as they arrange themselves into the model. NOTE: The model requires 25 students in groups of four plus one student representing the main router. If there are more students in the class, add extra students/computers to some networks. If there are fewer students, reduce some networks to only two students/computers.
Teach 3
- Distribute Activity Sheet 3.
- Have students relate their model to the diagram and explain how the Internet
works. Invite volunteers to share the answers to the questions:
- Question 1: Packets can travel between any two computers on a network.
- Question 2: A packet has to travel through three routers.
- Question 3: A traffic jam can occur when more packets arrive at a router than it can handle at that time.
Assess
The following items assess student mastery of the lesson objectives.
- Ask: What is the Internet? (a worldwide network of networks)
- Ask: What are packets? What do routers do with packets? (Packets are small pieces of information that travel on the Internet. Routers are devices that determine the route a packet takes.)
- Ask: Which students in the model had only one connection to the Internet? (the "computers") Which had more than one connection? (the "routers")
Extend
The following activity can be added for students who completed this lesson in a previous grade.
- Have students investigate the concept of bandwidth and how it varies from one part of the Internet to another.
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