This is probably the most fun but also right now the hardest activity to reproduce without us right now because of the use of the beautiful network modeling blocks created for this project by Disk Cactus. A description of the kit’s pieces is below under Materials.

Objective: Understand how different objects that make up the internet connect to each other and that the internet is a network of networks

Materials

• Network modeling kit:

  

  • Set of modular blocks that can be used as “nodes” of the network

    • Our blocks were custom and made of wood, but you could also make blocks using something like floral foam or small sections of pegboard or even maybe geoboards.
    • The most important characteristics of your blocks are that it’s possible to attach things to them.

  

  • Photos printed on or attached to on small pieces of colored card stock of different pieces of internet infrastructure that can be interchangeably attached to the blocks.

    • You can use our sets of image or make your own cards.
    • The color codes are part of the rules of the activity: certain objects can connect to each other, in certain ways, and other objects can’t. The color code scheme we used is here on this handout
    • Pro tip: you might want to laminate these cards, or at least cover them in packing tape or something, so they don’t get worn out really fast.
  • Various sized wooden dowels that will be used for illustrating wireless connections (seen in the pictures below). If using something like a geoboard you might be able to do something different, if using a pegboard this could be something like bolts inserted into the peg holes.
  • Material to connect the blocks together (string, pipe cleaners, straws–whatever works for your version!)
  • In our version of this we used two different kinds of colored tubing to created connections–orange for traditional internet communications and connections, and blue for cellular connections.
  • Tape for affixing the cards to things as needed

Here is an example of the modeling kit used to show two devices (a laptop and a router) communicating wirelessly via wifi. The router also has a wired connection back to the street and into a data center.

Here is an example of a cell tower emitting a wireless signal, still connected back to a fiber network.

Activities

• Break students into small groups and give them each a set of blocks, cables, and images from the network modeling kit. Their objective is to take the different types of objects in the kit and make a model of how the different objects fit together to send a message from one personal computer to another.

• Each group will have slightly different ratios of types of objects, but all will have at least 2 personal computer objects to connect together. Instructors will walk around during this process to give feedback and ask students to explain how their network works. (30-45 minutes)

• Here are some examples of distributions of types of objects and the types of connections you might want to give as sets to students:
  • Computers Talking to Other Computers
    • 2 computers
    • 2 routers
    • 2 “fiber”/street-level
    • 2 data centers
  • Computers Talking to Cell Phones
    • 1 computer
    • 1 router
    • 1 cell phone
    • 2 “fiber”/street-level
    • 1 data center
    • 2 cell towers
  • Cell Phones Talking to Cell Phones
    • 2 cell phones
    • 2 cell towers
    • 2 “fiber”/street-level
    • 2 data centers

• Yes, these are woefully oversimplified. We know. We’re sorry.

• Once each group has finished, introduce a new challenge: getting all the group’s networks to talk to each other. This is where you can introduce the carrier hotel or internet exchange, the building where all the different parts of the internet meet up to trade data. Use a block with a generic data center (or a custom example of a carrier hotel!) to connect all the networks across the space. (10-15 minutes)

• Show how it’s possible to see this transmission of data across the physical network with a traceroute. Lead discussion on how the network was built/how it got there, who owns it, and what happens when it breaks (15-25 minutes).

Feedback

Have you tried or have thoughts on this activity? We would love to hear from you!

Name

Email

Comments