INVITATION

How can we help students conceptualize the structure of the World Wide Web and understand its possibilities? How can we give students opportunities to design their own information structures and navigate through them? How can we help them create visual representations of digital landscapes?

TASKS

Students design virtual labyrinths through which others can navigate, trying to reach a final destination "room" by going through as few "doorways" as possible. The rooms (Web pages) are created, linked together, and then offered to others outside the group for exploration. Finally, the labyrinth's structures are analyzed through mapping and simple mathematical description.

TOOLS

Computers; the Internet (optional); Sherlock (optional).

AppleWorks; The Cruncher; a Web page editor, such as Adobe PageMill or Netscape Composer.

Carmen Sandiego Word Detective (optional); Destination: Time Trip, USA (optional); A Field Trip to the Rainforest Deluxe (optional); Mapmaker's Toolkit (optional); Math Mysteries: Whole Numbers (optional); Mighty Math Calculating Crew (optional); What' the Big Idea Ben Franklin? (optional); World Book Encyclopedia (optional); Zap! (optional).

Art supplies; markers or crayons; sheets of butcher paper or similar.

INTERACTIONS

Students work in small groups (of four to six) to plan their labyrinths; they then work individually or in pairs to create the Web pages that will make up the labyrinths. In Phase 2, students come back into their groups to make a linking map for their labyrinth pages, and then select two group members to carry out the linking process in the role of Web masters. When the linking process is complete, group members test the labyrinth and, if necessary, recommend changes to the Web masters. In Phase 3, students circulate around the classroom exploring other groups' labyrinths, and in Phase 4 they return to their groups to analyze their own labyrinths, a process which may include another round of investigating other groups' labyrinths. Throughout, the teacher provides general guidance and technical assistance.

<STANDARDS

To identify the curriculum standards for your state that correlate to this student project, select the state in the popup menu below and then click the Go button.

SITUATIONS

Students work in the classroom or a location where computers are available; if iBook or PowerBook computers are available, students can work on their Web pages anywhere.

The group work in Phases 1 and 2 can be completed during parts of two different days; the amount of time students need to create their Web pages in Phase 1 will vary depending on their ability to work outside of class. Phase 3 will require an hour or more of class time, and Phase 4 will take up a few additional hours.

ASSESSMENT

The teacher can develop a rubric to assess students' labyrinths on the basis of what the labyrinths demonstrate about group members' creativity, understanding of nonlinear information structures, and ability to translate knowledge into problems for others to solve.

To assess groups' analyses of their labyrinths, the teacher can ask each group to create a written summary of their analysis and turn it in together with a printout of The Cruncher spreadsheet and the AppleWorks map of the labyrinth. These materials can then be assessed with a rubric that evaluates students' ability to represent abstract structures graphically, describe them mathematically, and think analytically about the structures they have created.

The World Wide Web makes it possible, for the first time in human history, to organize information effectively in a nonlinear way. A piece of information can be connected to any other piece, allowing users to navigate through the information in any way that makes sense to them.

In this project, each group uses the two basic structural units of the Web, the page and the hyperlink, to create a virtual labyrinth that other students can explore as a challenging game. The labyrinth is constructed of Web pages, each of which contains links that bring the player closer to the final, hidden page, as well as links that divert the player from this final goal. The group sets up these pages so that determining the best link is a matter of figuring out a riddle, solving a problem, or finding the answer to a question about science, language arts, math, or history.

Phase 1: Making the pages

Ask students to visualize a large building with one entrance and a room hidden deep inside that contains a surprise. To get to that hidden room, they have to go through other rooms, each of which has more than one door. If they choose the right doors, they will find the hidden room quickly; if they choose the wrong doors, they may search for it forever. Now tell students that they will be creating something similar, except that the rooms will be Web pages and the doors will be hyperlinks. This structure will be called a "virtual labyrinth."

Explain the basic elements of a virtual labyrinth:

It has one beginning or entrance page and one final destination page.

There are any number of other pages in between the first and final pages, linked together.

Each page (except the final one) has at least one link that brings a player closer to the final page, and at least one link that leads the player farther away.

Each page is designed so that the player has to answer a question, solve a problem, or solve a riddle to determine which of the links on the page is the best one to follow to get to the final page.

Invite small groups to meet to discuss a plan of action for creating their virtual labyrinth. Each group should decide how many pages the labyrinth will contain, how the work of creating the pages will be divided, and how the group can use common elements or a theme to give its labyrinth a distinctive character.

Each page can be created independently of the others; therefore, after the groups meet, students can work on pages outside of class, individually or in pairs, in a computer lab or at home, or elsewhere if they have access to iBook portable computers.

Students can be very creative in designing their pages, which can contain both text and graphics. Encourage students to use any of the available software titles as sources of information (or models) for their riddles, problems, and questions, including A Field Trip to the Rainforest Deluxe, World Book Encyclopedia, What's the Big Idea Ben Franklin?, Math Mysteries: Whole Numbers, Zap!, Mighty Math Calculating Crew, Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, and Destination: Time Trip, USA. The answers and solutions should not be too hard for others to find or figure out, but they shouldn't be too easy, either.

Students can create their pages directly in a Web page editor, such as Adobe PageMill or Netscape Composer, using AppleWorks to create images. If students are using PageMill, encourage them to visit the Web Page Construction Site if they need help in creating a Web page, importing media elements, or creating text and headings. For help using Netscape Composer, direct students to the online help system by having them choose Help from the Help menu, then selecting Creating Web Pages from the menu on the left side of the screen. In this phase, students decide where the links will be on the pages, but they do not make actual links.

Phase 2: Mapping, linking, and testing

Students work in their groups to decide how to link their completed pages into a labyrinth. Each group begins by making a linking map, on which they represent all the pages they have created (each uniquely identified in some way) and plan the links that will connect them together. In planning the links, group members must be aware of how many links each page has, and then decide where the "good" links will go and where the "bad" links will go. The map can be drawn by hand on a large sheet of paper so that it is easily seen by all group members (suggest that groups start with a light pencil sketch that can be easily modified).

When the maps are finished, groups begin making the links on their Web pages. All the page files and image files should be placed in one folder on one computer before starting this process. Each group may want to select two members to be Web masters, who will carry out the linking on the single computer. Students using PageMill can go to the "Add links" section of the Web Page Construction Site for information on the linking process. Netscape Composer users can go to the "Linking and Publishing Your Web Page" section of the online Help system.

Once all the links are set, they can be tested. In PageMill, use the Preview mode, which allows the application to function like a browser. In Netscape Composer, save the page by ending its name with ".html" (as in MyPage.html), then clicking the Navigator icon on the Toolbar (the ship’s steering wheel). If necessary, the group can alter the structure of the labyrinth by changing the links.

Phase 3: Exploring other labyrinths

When all the virtual labyrinths are working as intended, each group invites students from other groups to explore its labyrinth. Players try to navigate to the final destination page by using as few links as possible.

Each player should keep track of the number of links he or she uses to get to the end of the labyrinth, so that this information can be used in Phase 4 by the group that created the labyrinth.

Phase 4: Analyzing the labyrinths

Groups analyze the data they collected when others explored their labyrinths. Using a spreadsheet created in The Cruncher, they can enter the number of links each player used to successfully navigate through the labyrinth and calculate the average per player. (Later, students may also want to pool all the class data in one spreadsheet, and compare the averages for each labyrinth.)

Each group can map its virtual labyrinth using the drawing tools in AppleWorks. These maps (a little more formal and more detailed than those used earlier for planning) allow analysis of the labyrinths: What are the total number of pages? The total number of links? What is the shortest path to the destination page? Is it possible to calculate the number of potential ways to navigate through a labyrinth? Students can use the Step-by-Step Card "Using the Drawing Tools in AppleWorks" for help creating this map.

Now groups exchange labyrinths, and each group tries to create a map of another group's labyrinth just by following the links. How long does it take to do this? Can students figure out a strategy that makes the mapping easier? How can they be sure the map they make is accurate?

Bring students together as a class to discuss their experiences and compare their labyrinths. How do the structures of the labyrinths vary? How can they describe these differences? Could they create a labyrinth without using a map?

Vocabulary: Hyperlink, Labyrinth, Virtual.

Phase 1: Students can get images to use in their labyrinth pages from a variety of sources. They can use Sherlock to search the Internet for images and download them, copy images from World Book Encyclopedia, export maps from Mapmaker's Toolkit, and use the clip art images in AppleWorks.

Phase 1: Any images that students download, copy, or create must be in either the JPEG format (for photos) or the GIF format (for graphics) to be used on the labyrinth pages. An image is placed on a page in PageMill by choosing Object from the Insert menu, then Image from the submenu, selecting the file in the Insert dialog box, and clicking Insert. To add an image in Netscape Composer, choose Image from the Insert menu. When the dialog box appears, select Choose File, navigate to the image you want to use, then click Open. Click OK to close the dialog box. Your image appears on the page. Image files should be kept in the same folder as the Web page files.

Phase 1: The number of links per page should be kept to a minimum; otherwise the links can quickly get out of hand. Three links per page is a good average. Groups may want to include a few pages with more than one "good" link to provide alternative direct paths to the destination page.

Phase 2: When students make their initial linking maps (Phase 2) and their more formal site maps (Phase 4), they should make sure to distinguish between "good" links (the best ways to the final page) and "bad" links (links that go away from the final page).

Phase 2: An image or piece of text that a student decided was to be a hyperlink (when the page was designed) can simply be highlighted in PageMill and then made into a link by choosing Make Link from the Edit menu. In Netscape Composer, after highlighting the text, choose Link from the Insert menu.

Phase 2: Name the "entrance page" file "index.html," which is the file that browsers look for first by default. The destination page should be named something that doesn't give away its identity: the filenames of links are shown by most browsers!

Phase 3: On the final destination page, include a link back to the first page, so that there is an easy way to "reset" the labyrinth for the next player.

PREPARATION

If using PageMill to create the Web pages, review the sections of the Web Page Construction Site and practice using PageMill so that you can better answer students' questions. Make copies of any of the pages of the Web Page Construction Site that groups may need for guidance in creating their labyrinth pages or linking them together. For Netscape Composer, you may want to review and print any of the online help pages that may be useful.

If your students are new to The Cruncher, you may want them to use the tutorials provided with the program to prepare them for making their spreadsheets in Phase 4.

Draw a map of a possible virtual labyrinth on the board to give students an idea of the structural possibilities.

Show students an example of a virtual labyrinth so that they have some initial model to follow. You can see an example of a small virtual labyrinth by clicking the icon to the right.

The interactive scenario in Math Mysteries: Whole Numbers is, in many ways, a sophisticated version of the virtual labyrinths students create. You may want to have students explore it as an introduction to this project.

The AppleWorks map that a group creates in Phase 4 can be added to the labyrinth as a "site map" that provides an overview of the labyrinth to players who get to the destination page. Groups who want to do this should provide a link on the destination page to a "site map" page, on which they have inserted their map (saved as a GIF file in AppleWorks).

The virtual labyrinths can be uploaded to an intranet or Internet server, so that they can be explored by others outside the class.

After they have created them, students can view their Pagemill Web pages in PageMill’s Source mode, which shows the HTML tags. This can be an introduction to HTML, and can trigger student interest in learning about it. In Netscape Composer, students can choose Page Source from the View menu to see the HTML tags.

For more advanced students, this project presents a good opportunity to learn about basic HTML. After receiving some instruction on HTML, students can create their Web pages without the aid of a Web page editor, adding HTML tags to regular text files created in AppleWorks word-processing documents, saving the files as text only, and then viewing them in an Internet browser.

Challenge students to come up with other ideas for games involving the navigation of Web pages.

Precede or follow this project with a lesson on the labyrinths of the ancient world, such as the one in the Minoan Palace of Knossos on Crete.

BOOKS

Creating Web Pages for Kids & Parents by Greg Holden

Dinotopia: The Maze by Peter David

Make Your Own Web Page!: A Guide for Kids by Ted Pedersen

Theseus and the Minotaur by Leonard Everett Fisher (Illustrator)

Barry's Clip Art
http://www.barrysclipart.com

Spywatch Interactive Stories
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lookandread/intro.htm

Mythweb
http://www.mythweb.com