• Instructional Objectives: Students will learn about the history of the Internet.
• Time Required: one class period
• Advance Preparation:  You should have a projector or TV screen setup beforehand to use. You should download the presentation on the history of the Internet from the Internet society (download from http://www.isoc.org/Internet/history/2002_0918_Internet_History_and_Growth.ppt  view and take out slides from the presentation as you see fit. It is very extensive. You probably don't need all the slides to view with your class.
• Materials / Resources Required:  projector or TV screen setup, computer with Internet access and Microsoft Word. Links that will assist in the teaching of this lesson: Internet history & design, Hobbes' Internet Timeline, Internet Society: History of the Internet, History of Internet and WWW - View from Internet Valley- which presents a fascinating, although very detailed history of the Internet
• Vocabulary: world wide web(WWW), hypertext markup language (html), uniform resource locator (url), hypertext transfer protocol (http), Internet protocol (ip)
•  Concepts, Focus Questions (and responses), Generalizations, Key Points: Focus questions for this lesson are: 
•  What do the terms WWW, html, url, http and ip stand for?
•  How did the Internet start begin? Although researchers began working on the basics for the Advanced Research Projects Agency ARPAnet(the predecessor of today's Internet) in the 50's, the motivation for it's development was the Cold War and the U.S. fear that in the event of a nuclear strike, essential information to the rebuilding of the U.S. would be lost. Information from the Pentagon and certain higher order educational institutions was transferred between each other. The shape of the nodes (interconnections) looked like a spider web design so people started calling it the web for short. The name the net comes from the abbreviation of the network of computers that were interconnected. Even though the Cold War passed, the network of computers was still running and being taken advantage of to transfer data. Everyone who used it came up with different languages to communicate over this network until it was standardized using hypertext. Communication was standardized using hypertext that set the table for the development of the hypertext transfer protocol or http for short. Almost immediately, it became logical that since hypertext was the backbone for the net, that a language based on this backbone was developed, hence the birth of html. As the web grew, people from Europe joined in and now the web was now not only in the United States, but all over the world so it became known as the World Wide Web or WWW for short. IP Number -- (Internet Protocol Number) or IP for short is a unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2 Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. URL is an address for a resource available on the Internet.  If you would like to look up more Internet terms then Matisse's Glossary of Internet terms is the place for you.
• Procedures:   
  1. Ask students what do the terms WWW, html, url, http and ip stand for? If you are fortunate enough to receive responses for three of the terms, ask your students regarding the origins of the Internet? Talk about how we use it so much, but know so very little regarding how it started.
  2. Show the class the PowerPoint presentation on the history of the Internet by the Internet Society?
  3. Go over the focus questions and responses with the class.
  4. Have students take the Internet Terms Online quiz at http://school.discovery.com/quizzes18/asalcedo/InternetTerms.html,then go over the answers http://teachnet-lab.org/motthall/asalcedo/HSUnit/online_quiz_answers.htm with the class. You can also go to http://school.discovery.com and create your own quiz if you like.
• Activities:  Students can take the Internet Terms Online Quiz individually or as a class using a projector or TV screen.
• Summary: What once began as a U.S. defense project has now become an indispensable tool in the technological age. After deviating from its military beginnings, the Internet has evolved into every researcher's magic wand. It is estimated that by the year 2010, 80% of the world will be on the Internet in some way or another. It is important to know where we came from, where we are at, so that we can know where we will be heading in the future. The Internet started with educational institutions of higher learning and became a tool that helped them share resources and make decisions, today we can use the internet for the same purpose on a smaller scale: to share the resources we find and help us and others make decisions about where to go.