Overview of NASA/STEP Curriculum Module-Summer 2000

I. Title of Module:

• An Introduction to Web Page Design

II. Author:

• Michael Chessler

III. Grade Level:

• High School 9-12

IV. Students:

• Urban Minority

V. Purposes:

• Primary: Introduce students to the fundamentals of the internet, the world wide web, and simple web page design.
• Secondary: Teach students to design and maintain a simple web page utilizing the fundamentals of HTML, Netscape Composer, and the tools available on the internet.

VI. Overview

• This will be an eight session short course intended to introduce students to the fundamentals of the internet, the world wide web, and simple web page design.

VII. Curricular Content Development:

The objective is for the student to become self-sufficient on the internet and then be able to design and maintain a simple web page utilizing the fundamentals of HTML, Netscape Composer, and the tools available on the internet. No text is needed as all the reference information and instructional material is already available on numerous educational and academic sites. In addition, "Help" menus are included on most of these pages to troubleshoot common problems. The final product will be a basic web page on one of the internet's free hosting sites on a topic or theme of the students' choosing.

VIII. Teaching and Learning Approaches:

• After the first session's introduction, the teacher will act more as a facilitator than instructor to allow the students to search and develop research and access skills on their own.

IX. Inquiry Skills:

NASA/STEP Module - Web Page Design - Lesson 1/ Day 1

• Computer lab rules
• Introduction to Computers: Hardware, Software, Terms and Acronyms (e.g. PARC, GUI, DOS, URL, Browser,ISP, Search Engine, Root server, DNS,Host, HTTP,HTML, Java, etc.)
• Assessment of skills and computer knowledge
• History of the Internet and the World Wide Web -- Its Structure and Conventions
• Sample Browsing and exploring different types and style of web pages

NASA/STEP Module - Web Page Design - Lesson 2/ Day 2

• Set up individual email accounts using aliases to preserve the students anonymity -- Hotmail or Yahoo (both offer free email)
• Explore Free Website Hosting: Homestead.com, Tripod.com, and Angelfire.com
• Read the free Tutorials at each of these sites to become familiar with the basic techniques of web page design

NASA/STEP Module - Web Page Design - Lesson 3/ Day 3

• Find reference sites with necessary background information, e.g. Yahoo.com>Computers and Internet>Tech Guides and Support>Help-site.com>Categories>Internet>Documents>A BasicGuide to the Internet/History of the Internet
• Read the two articles (www.albany.edu/library/internet/www or internet.html)
• Discussion of the two articles and how this information can be used to plan and develop their own pages

NASA/STEP Module - Web Page Design - Lesson 4/ Day 4

• Internet Tutorials -- Interactive sites that allow students to teach themselves and learn to become self-sufficient; a variety of these are available at www.albany.edu/library/internet/, among other sites 

• Discussion of the reliability of various web sites; evaluation techniques

NASA/STEP Module - Web Page Design - Lesson 5/ Day 5

• Proposals for Web Sites: Naming, Content, Rationale, Purpose, Discussion of choices and class evaluation
• Web Developer's Virtual Library (www.wdvl.com/Authoring/Tutorials/)
• Specific tutorials to be read and used: Introduction to HTML, Introduction to Web Design, Web Programming and Scripting

NASA/STEP Module - Web Page Design - Lesson 6, 7, 8/ Day 6, 7, 8

• Using the tools and techniques they have learned, the students, after their proposals have been approved, will now spend the final three days developing and designing their sites.

• Questions will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, with more common problems discussed by the class as a whole. Students will also have the chance to evaluate and discuss each other's sites with the goal of using other opinions and ease of use and navigation  as criteria for improvement.

N.B.: At the end of the two week session, all participating students had an operative, if basic, website.

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Last Updated Feb.14, 2001 by Roz Krakowsky
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