Curriculum

Twenty-First Century Challenges

Lesson Plans and Student Activity Sheets

CyberSmart! original, nonsequential standards-based lesson plans and student activity sheets have students think critically about the Internet as a communication and collaboration tool and consider how their futures will be affected by rapidly changing digital technologies.

Communication Inventions Students learn how the Internet relates to communication inventions of the past.
Grades	Lesson Title	Lesson Overview	Codes^*
K-1	Spread the News!	Children learn what it means to communicate, recognize the computer as a communication invention, and plan their own way to communicate a message.
2-3	What's the Big Idea?	Students recognize people's need and desire to communicate as they describe and classify past and present communications inventions.
4-5	Great Communicators	Students consider great communications inventions, including the Internet, and assess advantages and disadvantages of each.
6-8	Great Moments in Communications	Students assemble a timeline to understand how communications technology has evolved, and relate the invention of the Internet to earlier inventions.

What Is Cyberspace? Students conceptualize the geography of cyberspace and explain how it relates to the places they know.
Grades	Lesson Title	Lesson Overview	Codes^*
K-1	Cyberspace at School	Children explore the concept of cyberspace as a means of communicating with real people within their school.
2-3	My Cyberspace Neighborhood	Students explore the concept of cyberspace as a means of connecting people and explain how the ability to communicate can unite a neighborhood.
4-5	Cyberspace Country	Students contrast cyberspace with actual and fantasy places, learn that cyberspace is where real people connect using computers and real experiences take place, and visually express their conception of the geography of cyberspace in the U.S.
6-8	Cyberspace World	Students consider the concept of cyberspace as a place and learn that it can be defined as real people communicating through computers connected to the Internet. They create a map to visually represent that definition, taking into account the influences of population, language, and geography around the world.

How Does the Internet Work? Students learn about networks and the network of networks—the Internet.
Grades	Lesson Title	Lesson Overview	Codes^*
4-5	What is a Network?	Students model a network and learn that the Internet consists of many computer networks that are able to communicate with one another.
6-8	Information Highways	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.

Into the Future Students predict how new communications technologies will affect people in the future.
Grades	Lesson Title	Lesson Overview	Codes^*
4-5	Imagining the Future	Students consider emerging computer and Internet technologies, and predict how such developments might directly affect the lives of kids in the future.
6-8	Debating the Future	Students analyze social issues related to the future use of the Internet, decide if they agree or disagree with one another, and support their views in a debate.

No computer required =
Optional Web 2.0 tool activity =
Internet connection required =