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.

• Interactive Cable Map - this one lets you click and see details about where the lines are connected to various countries
• Interactive Cable Map with List of Cables - This one has a nice listing to the side of all of the major cables
• Collection of Maps-picture 5 - 8 that moves through the growth of users from 2002 to 2008 is pretty impressive

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: