Unit 6: Networks, Protocols, and Power

Framing Concept: The internet is a system of abstractions that shapes global power.

Unit Overview

This unit moves from computation within a machine to communication between machines. Students learn the layered abstractions that make up the modern internet—IP, DNS, HTTP—and investigate how they enable, restrict, and shape digital experience. It’s technical, yes, but also political. Every protocol has values embedded in it. Every request leaves a trace.

We’re not training network engineers—we’re building citizens who understand the digital scaffolding of their world.

Essential Questions

  • How do computers find and communicate with each other?
  • What does it mean to send a “packet” of information?
  • Who controls the flow of digital information?
  • How does internet infrastructure shape access and authority?

Core Learning Goals

  • Understand the abstraction stack: IP, DNS, TCP/IP, HTTP
  • Simulate packet routing and message transmission
  • Use tools like Code.org’s Internet Simulator to model flow and breakdowns
  • Reflect on metadata, surveillance, ownership, and trust
  • Connect local code to global systems

Core Activities

  • Internet Map Activity: Trace how a webpage loads step-by-step across layers
  • Packet Game: Roleplay packet switching with message reconstruction
  • Metadata Analysis: Explore what your browser leaks in a simple HTTP request
  • Infrastructure Walkthrough: Who owns what? Submarine cables, ISPs, DNS authorities

Stretch + Extensions

  • Command Line: Navigate files, explore curl and ping (environment permitting)
  • Network Visualizations: Use traceroute-style tools to map traffic flow
  • Self-Hosting Project: Serve a local HTML/CSS project using a basic Python server
  • Web Ethics Debate: Algorithmic gatekeeping, throttling, censorship

Technical Notes

  • Emphasis on conceptual abstraction, not packet inspection or security protocols
  • Safe tools and scaffolds used for simulation, not live diagnostics
  • Optional CLI intro supports eventual developer fluency

Assessment and Reflection

  • Layered Diagram: Explain a single data request across all relevant protocols
  • Protocol Journal: What do each of these abstractions make possible or impossible?
  • Concept Mapping: How are the internet, data, power, and computing connected?
  • Group Discussion: Who would you trust to run the internet? Why?

End-of-Unit Statement

By the end of Unit 7, students understand that the internet isn’t magic—it’s a set of layered agreements, maintained by people, embedded with priorities. They begin to see how infrastructure is design, and how protocol is policy. This understanding arms them for more critical, technical, and civic engagements with the systems they rely on.