Every website has a purpose, a reason someone created it and others use it. In this lesson, students will start to consider the purposes a website might serve, both for the users and the creators. Students will explore a handful of the most-used websites in the United States and try to figure out how each of those sites is useful for users and how they might also serve their creators.

This lesson introduces CSS as a way to style elements on the page. Students learn the basic syntax for CSS rule-sets and then explore properties that impact HTML text elements. They work on a HTML page about Guinness World Record holders, adding their own style to the provided page. In the last level, students apply what they have learned about styles for text elements to their personal web page.

In this lesson students investigate ways to use websites as a means of personal expression and develop a list of topics and interests that they would want to include on a personal website. To begin the lesson students brainstorm different ways that people express and share their interests and ideas. Students then look at a few exemplar websites made by students from a previous CS Discoveries course to identify ways they are expressing their ideas. Finally students brainstorm and share a list of topics and interests they might want to include on a personal website which they can reference for ideas as they progress through the unit.

In this lesson students are introduced HTML as a solution to the problem of how to communicate both the content and structure of a website to a computer. The lesson begins with a brief unplugged activity demonstrating the challenges of effectively communicating the structure of a web page. Students then look at an exemplar HTML page in Web Lab and discuss with their classmates how HTML tags help solve this problem. Students then write their first HTML. A wrap-up discussion helps to solidify the understanding of content vs. structure that was developed throughout the lesson.

In this lesson, students continue to use HTML to structure text on web pages, this time with headings. Students learn how the different heading elements are displayed by default and practice using them to create page and section titles. Students then start to decide how they will organize their content on their own personal web pages. In the last level, students begin the project that they will continue to work on throughout the unit.

As students have recently spent some time thinking about the actual content that will go into their personal website, this lesson takes a step back from the unit-long project (publication of a personal website) to help students articulate what personal information they choose to share digitally and with whom. It also reinforces the notion that much of the information that they choose to share digitally falls largely out of their control the moment it is released.

Students begin by individually identifying appropriate audiences with whom they would be comfortable sharing given pieces of personal information. They then look at several social media pages to determine what sorts of information people are sharing about themselves or one another. Last, students reflect on what guidelines they think are appropriate for posting information online.

The ultimate point of this lesson is not to scare students, but rather to experientially bring students to realizing precisely what level of control they don’t have in releasing information into the web.

Students are introduced to ordered and unordered lists in HTML and work through a few levels in which they use the <ul>, <ol>, and <li> tags. They then go back to their project, where they add a new HTML page. Inside the new page, they write the HTML to display a recipe, top ten list, or any other content that uses the new tags that they have learned.

Starting with a discussion of their personal opinions on how others should be allowed to use their work, the class explores the purpose and role of copyright for both creators and users of creative content. They then move on to an activity exploring the various Creative Commons licenses as a solution to the difficulty in dealing with copyright.

Finally, with a common understanding of the restrictions of various Creative Commons licenses, students learn how to add images to their web pages using the <img> tag.

Students deal with common issues that arise when designing web pages in HTML. Students will correct errors in a sequence of increasingly complex web pages. In the process they will learn the importance of comments, whitespace, and indentation as tools for making web pages easier to read. At the end of the lesson students create a list of strategies for debugging web pages and ensuring they are easy to read and maintain.

After learning about how to link web pages to one another, students are finally able to publish the website they have been working on. In this lesson, they link together all the previous pages they have created into one project, create a new page, and add navigation between the pages before publishing the entire site to the Web.

In this lesson students develop a preliminary definition of a computer. To begin the lesson, the class will brainstorm possible definitions for a computer and place the results of this brainstorm on the board. Next, students will work in groups to sort pictures into “is a computer” or “is not a computer” on poster paper. Groups will place their posters around the room and briefly explain their motivations for choosing some of their most difficult categorizations. The teacher will then introduce a definition of the computer and allow students to revise their posters according to the new definition.