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For teachers

Teach how the internet works

Net City turns a hard-to-visualise topic into a walkable city. Here are the learning goals by zone and ideas you can run in any classroom.

Learning objectives

What each zone teaches

  1. 1

    Getting Connected

    Explain how a device joins the internet and what a router and Wi-Fi do.

  2. 2

    Address Avenue

    Describe what an IP address is and why every device needs one.

  3. 3

    Packet Highway

    Explain that messages travel as small packets that are reassembled on arrival.

  4. 4

    DNS Library

    Describe how a domain name is looked up into an IP address.

  5. 5

    Browser Plaza

    Explain the steps between clicking a link and seeing a page.

  6. 6

    Web Builder Workshop

    Understand that websites are built from code, and structure a tiny page in HTML.

  7. 7

    Email Post Office

    Explain how an email travels from one inbox to another.

  8. 8

    Safety Fortress

    Identify strong passwords and basic ways to stay private online.

  9. 9

    The Big Picture

    Retell the whole journey of a click, start to finish.

Unplugged, or online

Three classroom ideas

Packet relay race

Split the class into stations. A message is cut into slips (packets); each slip travels a different route through classmates acting as routers, then the slips are reassembled in order at the end.

DNS phone book

Write website names on one set of cards and IP addresses on another. Kids practise looking a name up in the 'phone book' to find its matching address.

Classroom internet

Draw a map of a small network — devices, a router, a server — with strings for connections. Send a 'request' token along the strings and watch it find its destination and return.

Printables coming soon

We're preparing a Net City map to colour in, a packet-relay game and a password-strength worksheet. Join the waitlist and we'll share them when they're ready.

Get the printables