Friday, May 17, 2013

Underwater Spaghetti - Internet Cables

So sometimes in teaching you add a little fun fact into a lesson and that one little grain of sand takes over.



Underwater Internet Cables

I know, it seems totally random. But for two years in the APCS Principles pilot the students have been totally transfixed by this. It was a tiny picture off to the side of the notes and their questions. It led to a great conversation about the physical structure of the Internet and equity of access.

So look at this map:



I asked the kids what they notice first - many of them talked about how many parts of the world have very limited connections. This makes for a great writing prompt for their journals.

Just found these interactive maps - they let you explore these cables ad see where the connections are.


As an interesting comparison, here is a map of the first underwater cables laid int he mid 1800'a that made up the telegraph system:





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