1. Youth-Led Tech Curriculum
Day 6: Wordpress Posting & How the Internet Works
Content Goals: Youth will learn how to post a blog post on WordPress and
learn how the Internet works.
Leadership Goals: Teambuilding exercises that focus on team communication
Materials: Confusion worksheet, pens, paper, markers, projector
10:00 AM Sign-in
Use the online attendance sheet to mark students as present and
note any issues.
10:05 AM Mood Check/Icebreaker Question
It’s important to start every session with an opening activity, such
as a Mood Check-in, where students state their mood on a scale of
1-10. We often pair this with an icebreaker question that each
student answers.
10:15 AM Confusion!
Students work on their communication and teambuilding skills by
working on a set of tasks.
Play-by-play
1. Hand each student a copy of the “Confusion!” handout.
2. Explain that students must go around and ask one another
to complete the tasks listed on their handout, and then
have their peers sign when they’ve completed the task.
3. Give students a time frame in which to complete this
activity. The student who completes their “Confusion!”
handout first may get a prize.

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10:45 AM Introduction to How the Web Works
This module will teach students the basics of how the web works
including the concept of ‘The Cloud”, the World Wide Web,
DNS/Web Addresses, and how content appears in the browser.
Part One: The History of the Internet
Let’s say you wrote a really cool song on your computer. Without
the internet the song would just stay on your laptop. To share it,
you’d have to have somebody come over and look at your laptop -
or you’d have to download it onto a floppy disk (What they had
before USBs) and physically carry it over.
This is how computers used to work. And it was a bit of a problem
for scientists trying to work collaboratively. Instead of shipping
documents from universities on the east coast to the west coast, it
would be a lot easier if one computer could just pick up a phone
and call the other.
Which is exactly what they did.
In 1965, a professor at MIT used a phone line to call up a computer
at UCLA and send information back and forth. This was the first
(very small) network. The government saw value with this and
funded an experiment called ARPAnet. Computers from across the
country were added to the network becoming a ‘web’ of
computers.
But, this network had a problem. It began to grow large enough to
where one computer couldn’t find another specific computer.
Imagine that you want to visit a friend’s house for the first time,
but there are no street numbers. You’d get lost pretty easily.
To solve this, Vincent Cerf and Robert Kahn created the TCP/IP
protocol. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol. It had four ground rules:
 Each distinct network would have to stand on its own and
no internal changes could be required to any such network
to connect it to the Internet.
 Communications would be on a best effort basis. If a packet
(information) didn't make it to the final destination, it would
shortly be sent again from the source.
 Black boxes would be used to connect the networks; these

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would later be called gateways and routers. There would be
no information retained by the gateways about the
individual flows of packets passing through them, thereby
keeping them simple and avoiding complicated adaptation
and recovery from various failure modes.
 There would be no global control at the operations level.
The protocol also had a system for giving each device connected to
the network an address called an IP Address.
Activity: Address Numbers
Everyone take out their phones or laptop. Google “What’s my IP
address”
Now, notice that if you’re not on the Wi-Fi your address is different
from mine. Every internet connection has it’s own address. Every
website also has an address too.
Now, go into the address bar and enter 173.252.110.27
See, it really works - that’s Facebook’s address on the Internet
About DNS
The problem with the IP address is that nobody can remember all
the numbers needed to get everywhere on the web.
So, they developed services called “Domain Name Servers” that
give addresses like 173.252.110.27 names like “Facebook.com”
DNS servers act like Google Maps for your computer. It works like
this:
1. You tell your browser that you want to go to
“mikvachallenge.org”
2. Your computer calls up a DNS server to ask for directions to
mikvachallenge.org
3. The DNS servers looks through all the addresses in all of the
internet and find: 67.202.93.0
4. The DNS tells your browser where to find the site. Your
browser then points itself to 67.202.93.0
5. www.mikvachallenge.org pops up in your browser!

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Web Hosting
The other problem with the early network is that those computers
had to be on and connected all the time to work. It also became
hard for a lot of people to try to access the same file on a single
machine all at the same time.
Could you imagine 500 people trying to call you at once? Doesn’t
work that well.
The people who were building the Internet needed a way to serve
the information to a lot of people at once. The answer became
dedicated computers that would ‘serve’ people information called
servers.
YouTube has hundreds of server room that hold thousands of cat
videos. When you point your browser to the funny video of your
choice, the server ‘serves’ your video to your web browser.
Not everyone has to have a server room to host their websites.
Expunge.io uses a service called “Amazon Web Services” to borrow
their server. (Yes, you really can order everything from Amazon.”
11:30 AM Break
11:45 AM Two Thumbs and a Lie
In this activity, students to get to know each other in a fun and
challenging way.
Play-by-Play
For large groups (e.g., 30+), it is best to split into smaller group
sizes.
Explain that in this activity each person must come up with two
truths and a lie about themselves and then we will try to guess
each other's lie. The goal is to: a) convince others that your lie is
truth and vice versa. The second goal for participants will be to
correctly guess other people's lies.
1. Allow approx. 5-8 minutes for writing 2 truths & a lie
a. This isn't easy for a lot of people - there will some
scribbling out, etc. The slower people will probably
need to be urged along to "put anything you can

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think of" down. You will probably need to urge people
along.
2. Gather together in a circle. Start with one person who reads
their three statements aloud (to remind everyone).
3. Read the statements again, stopping to allow a vote for
each one. e.g., "I am Turkish. Who thinks that is a lie?
[Vote] I am vegetarian. Who thinks that is a lie? [Vote] I
have a metal pin in my right leg. Who thinks that is a lie?
[Vote]. OK, my lie was "I am vegetarian."" The facilitator
will need to help each person out, especially initially until
the basic format is understood. The facilitator may add
drama and reinforcement, etc. for correct guesses, tricky
statements, etc.
12 NOON Lunch
1:00 PM Line Up
Play-by-play
1. Ask students to get in a line.
2. Once they are in a line let them know that they now have to
be completely quiet, no talking, no mouthing.
3. They have to rearrange the line so that the youngest person
is in front of the line and the oldest person in the back of
the line.
4. Give them 3 minutes to complete the activity.
1:15 PM Typing Club
 Logon http://youthledtech.typingclub.com
 Allow youth to practice/develop their typing skills
 This could be a useful time for facilitators to catch up on
paperwork or setup for the next activity
 Facilitators can track the students progress to make sure
that they are actually on the right site
2:00 PM Break
2:15 PM Creating Content
Students will learn how to create a blog post on WordPress
1. Video: https://ithemes.com/tutorials/wordpress-posts-vs-
pages/
Debrief with group:

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 When might it be best to just make a post?
 When might it be best to create a page?
 What kind of content makes a good post?
 What kind of content makes a good page?
Activity
2. Distribute pen/markers and paper
3. Youth will create an About page for their site (15 mins)
4. Mission statement
5. What will the user gain from the site?
6. Youth will give their About page to a partner for peer
edits/questions (5 minutes)
7. Allow youth to discuss and clarify their partners feedback (5
mins)
8. On a new sheet the youth should synthesize what their
original work and their partners feedback to make a new
About page (10 mins)
9. Share out (20 mins)
10.Collect the About pages from the youth. Make sure they
write their name on it.
Create a Post
1. VIDEO: https://ithemes.com/tutorials/creating-a-wordpress-
post/
2. Youth should log onto their WordPress site
3. Create a post (7 minutes)
4. Remind the youth that the post should be true to their
About page
5. Youth should email you a link to their first post
6. Share some of the posts via the projector
3:45 PM Reflection
This is the time to ask for youth input and evaluate sessions.
Reflection can also be some kind of affirming activity where
students congratulate or compliment each other on their
contributions to the group.
3:55 PM Sign Out
Make sure all youth are accounted for.

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Confusion!
Find a different person for each task listed and once you/they complete the task,
have them sign their name next to it.
1. Get someone to do five push-ups
1. ____________________________________________
2. Stand on one foot with your arms
outstretched for 20 seconds and have
someone time you
2.______________________________________________

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3. Leap frog over someone 5 times
3.______________________________________________
4. Get someone to whisper the pledge of
allegiance
4.______________________________________________
5. Play “Ring around the Rosy” with two
other people
5. Person 1:______________________________________ Person
2:________________________________________
6.____________________________________________ Nursery

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6. Get someone to recite a nursery rhyme Rhyme:_________________________________
7. Shake hands with someone you do not
know and continue holding hands while
debating the merits of your favorite ice
cream flavor
7.______________________________________________ Favorite
Ice Cream:_________________________________
8. Have someone teach you a dance step
(even if they make it up)
8. ____________________________________________
9. Find someone with your same shoe
size, make sure to include the shoe size
9.______________________________________________ Shoe
Size:______________________________________

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10.Find someone with the same zodiac
sign
10.___________________________________________
Zodiac Sign:_________________________________________