Day 1

Shodor Main Image Text that says the Shodor Foundation

Bob Gotwals, Bob2, opened the Internet Science Explorers workshop by introducing Eric, some of the projects that people are working on, and the general idea of Shodor. Next the staff introduced themselves, and the class began. Anne was the first presenter, and she began the first activity. The students interviewed their partners, and as they did this, they took notes on the questions they asked and the responses they received. One of the questions was to rate their partner's internet experience on a scale of one to five. The students came up with a conversion for this: 1 = no experience, 2 = email and maybe a little web, 3 = browser experience, 4 = ICQ, IRC, game guilds, usenet, etc., 5 = all the above plus coding. Most of the kids were twos or threes, with a couple of fours mixed in. From this the students discovered that they would have to collaborate in many cases to progress through the exercises. Next the students set up their email accounts. They tested these by sending email to their partner, who then replied. They were also introduced to the rules of email etiquette.

After their break the students came back in to learn about the internet. They discussed its origin and how it works. They also wrote a message down on a long piece of paper, and then cut it up, to simulate a file broken down into packets. Different people were routers, servers, and hubs. At this point Alton took over and got the students to figure out what makes up a good page. The students listed things like good graphics, relevant data, and functioning links. Alton showed them which of the things they listed really aided a scientific website.