How Stuff Works!
Email and The Internet
Keywords:
Internet Providers, ISP, Email, How the Internet Works, Email and the Internet, How Stuff Works.
Site Overview:
Similar to the book of the same title, this web site is amazing in scope. It is a place to visit when you want to know “how stuff works.” The topics consist of engines, electronics, computers, food, science and technology, automotive, music and entertainment, the Internet, health and nutrition, digital, home repair, in public, holidays, in the news, energy/power, inside aviation, around the house, time, weather, telecommunications etc… You get the idea. The features are: Question of the Day, Huge Question Archive, Link of the Day, Link Archive, Super Useful Links, and The Big List. In this field trip, we will look at two specific aspects of the virtual world. Many people own personal computers or have access to them at work or school. We have all heard the words email, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. The question is how does it all work? In this field trip, we will find out.
Goals and Objectives:
The goals and objectives of this field trip are to have a basic understanding of: (1) the Internet and its uses, (2) technical terminology, and (3) two specific processes related to the Internet (email and web servers). You will learn how these processes work and how to apply this knowledge to everyday life.
Research:
(Source: How Stuff Works by Marshall Brain, web site.)
The Internet has been around for a while, and its history is very interesting. The Internet began in the 1960's. It was used by the U.S. Department of Defense for military purposes to send information from one government computer to another. The Department developed a network, meaning the computers were hooked or linked to each other and could send and receive information. This network of computers, used only by the military and government, was called ARPAnet. The purpose was to make sure these systems could still safely transport information even in times of war or natural disaster.
Soon universities and other institutions developed their own computer networks, and finally all were merged with ARPAnet to form the Internet. By the 1990's, anyone with a computer, modem and Internet software could link to the Internet, send email and “surf the web.”
Lesson Plans and Site Navigation:
1. Go to the How Stuff Works Website at http://www.howstuffworks.com. Once you navigate through these pages to find the answers to the scavenger hunt questions, you may read or scan the pages at your leisure. The toughest obstacle with this field trip is the vocabulary. Because some of the vocabulary is too difficult for younger children, allow them to become familiar with the various terms without requiring 100 percent mastery.
2. Go to the home page of the site How Stuff Works.
3. Click on the highlighted word The Internet.
4. Click on the subcategory How Web Servers and the Internet Work by Marshall Brain.
5. Read the information provided, and answer the questions below pertaining to the age group you wish to target. Once completed, go to the next section if you wish. For younger children, you may not want to cover the entire article, as some of the information is relatively complicated.
6. Each of these pages has more than one part to it. After you have read one section, click on the next article about How Web Servers and the Internet Work.
7. For the next section of this field trip, return to the home page.
8. Go back to the How Stuff Works Home Page. Click on The Internet.
9. Go to the subcategory How Email Works by Marshall Brain.
10. Read the information provided, and answer the questions below pertaining to the age group you wish to target. Again, some of this information is complicated, and you will not be able to cover it all with younger children.
11. Each of these pages has more than one part to it. After you have read one section, click on the next article about How Email Works.
12. Once you have finished with the questions, you may want to view the many links provided on this site in relation to the subjects you have just covered.
13. Look at the additional activities to see if any are of interest.
Scavenger Hunt Questions:
Grades K-3
1. What is the Internet?
2. What is a modem?
3. How does the information you look at on the computer come to the screen?
4. What does www stand for?
5. What is the domain name of this web site?
6. What is email?
7. When you look at your email, you are online. What is the software that allows your computer to take you online called?
8. What do email clients allow you to do when you are looking at the mail?
9. What is an email account name?
10. Explain how email is better than regular or snail mail.
Grades 4-8
1. Look for the following vocabulary words and define: (a) Modem, (b) Internet service provider or ISP, and (c) Computer network.
2. What is a URL?
3. What is the Internet?
4. Draw a diagram of the way ISP providers link to home computers, and the way they link to businesses with a T-1 line.
5. What does email stand for and explain its convenience?
6. Read the article about the first email message (Click on the words “this extremely interesting article” on the first page of how email works.) What did Ray Tomlinson do?
7. What is an email client and what does it do?
8. What is an email server? What two servers are used in “real mail” and provide a brief explanation.
9. Draw a diagram of SMTP and explain.
Grades 9-12
1. Make up a list of vocabulary words that you may not be familiar with on these pages. Briefly define them. Do this as you are browsing the pages.
2. What is a URL?
3. What is the Internet?
4. Draw a diagram of the way ISP providers link to home computers and the way they link to businesses with a T-1 line. Write a brief explanation.
5. How does information come to your computer when it is requested?
6. Read the article about the first email message (click on the words “this extremely interesting article” on the first page of how email works). What did Ray Tomlinson do?
7. How is what Tomlinson did related to the first communication via the phone and what are its implications?
8. What is an email client and what does it do?
9. What is an email server?
10. What are the two servers used in real email? Provide a brief explanation.
11. Draw a diagram of SMTP and explain.
Additional Activities:
· Set up an email account. Practice sending and receiving email.
· Practice sending an email with an attachment. Follow the directions (by clicking on help) on your email client (the software that allows you to receive and send email).
· Save an email text that someone has sent you. Again follow the directions on your email client.
· Set up an address book on your email account
· Use strings and colored paper, and make a diagram of how an email system works. Display this on a poster board.
· Design your own web site! There is software available to allow you to make your own web site. Many Internet providers will allow you to have a free web page.
· Learn “html.” This is the basic programming language for web pages on the Internet.
· Practice “bookmarking” a web site. This means you place it in your “favorite folder” or some type of storage system on your computer. This allows you to go back to your favorite site again without having to look up the URL.
· Research using various keywords to find an article. For example if you are researching zoo animals, you would type in a series of words (and make sure they are in quotation marks), such as “zoo animals,” “science nature animals,” etc. If you find an article you would like to go to again, bookmark the site.
· Networks Solutions is a company that stores all the “domain names” and guarantees that all domain names are unique. You can think up a domain name, and test it on the networks solutions site (www.Networksolutions.com) to see if it is taken.
· Learn as much of your Internet software as possible, such as how the mail center works (how to receive and send mail), files, folders, etc.