The Badge Archive

Network Strings

Info Needed for the Daisy badge requirements: A computer by itself cannot talk to other computers, search the internet, or download information. Computers are connected to each other through a computer network. The basic connections are made with wires. A wire can connect one computer to another, and all the communication and information goes through the wire.

Wireless connections are also common. Our voice travels through the air on sound waves we can’t see, but our ears can receive the sound, and we hear what someone else says. Information (or data) is sent through the air on specific waves we can’t see or hear, but a computer can have a receiver that “hears” or detects the information (or data). A wire connection needs a wire connected between computer 1 and computer 2 so they can send and receive data. A wireless connection needs a receiving device in both computer 1 and computer 2 so they can send and receive data.

Info Needed for the Brownie & Junior badge requirements: We know the internet is where computers anywhere in the world can connect with each other. We also know there are wireless devices, so things do not need to be wired together to connect. But can a computer in America connect to a computer in Asia wireless? Not quite. Your wireless device has to be in range of a wireless receiver. The wireless receiver is plugged in. The data goes from your device to the receiver wireless, and then travels by wire over to Asia. There are actually wires that cross the ocean, called “undersea cables”. Some think they are a myth, but that is how data travels across continents. In Asia the wires might connect to another wireless receiver, and it sends the data wirelessly to another device. That is how two wireless devices can connect across the world.

Items Needed

  • Whiteboard or poster board with markers
  • Thick string or yarn (about 50 feet, cut into varying lengths as scouts take positions)
  • 4 index cards
  • 4 binder clips

Instructions

  1. Work as a group to write a simple message (e.g., “Meet me at the park!”) on the whiteboard or poster board.
  2. Divide the message into chunks of 4–5 characters each. Write each chunk on an index card and number the back of the cards.
  3. Assign one scout as the sender and another as the receiver. Have the sender and receiver stand at opposite sides of the room.
  4. The rest of the scouts spread out in the middle as “network friends.”
  5. Use string to connect the network friends to each other, to the receiver, and to four of the network friends to the sender. Each scout holds the strings connecting them.
  6. The sender attaches the cards to binder clips and slides them along the strings to the network friends.
  7. Network friends pass the cards along the strings until they reach the receiver.
  8. The receiver collects the cards, puts them in the correct order using the numbers on the back, and reads the message aloud.
  9. Talk about the challenges of sending the message and compare the network to a railroad system.

See Internet and Networks for more information.

GSUSA VTK Disclaimer: Permission for use of Code.org activities is provided by Code.org, a non-profit dedicated to giving every student in every school the opportunity to learn computer science. See www.code.org.

Tia Kennard