Context of the Standard

Just like electricity travels through a closed circuit, information in a computing system needs a physical or wireless path to travel to be sent and received. Information is broken into smaller pieces that are sent independently and reassembled at the destination. There are physical paths for communicating information, such as ethernet cables, and wireless paths, such as Wi-Fi. Often, information travels on a combination of physical and wireless paths; for example, wireless paths originate from a physical connection point.

At this level, the priority is understanding that there are different ways to transfer information, rather than the details of how routers and switches work and how to compare paths.

Students are not expected to know the exact mechanisms for conducting the transmission in third grade.

Essential Skills

Essential Questions

Essential Vocabulary

Students should demonstrate these skills:

• Identify types of electronic communications (e.g., email, blogging, text messaging, video messaging).
• Discuss the different types of information that can be communicated through different transmission media.
• Explain that electronic pathways are needed to transfer information within computing systems.

Students should investigate these concepts:

• What are the different types of electronic communication?
• How do you decide which method of communication is best for a particular situation?
• How does information travel from computing device to computing device?

Students should apply these terms in context:

• Network
• Email
• Blog
• Text message
• Video conferencing