A Navigation Experiment

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze the nature of websites and their internal links.
  
• Evaluate the differences between website navigations
  
• Engage in an open discussion about their user experience during the activity

Resources:

Materials

• Computer, mobile phone, tablet, or other device with an internet connection.
• Smartboard, anchor chart, or computer with projector.
• Writing utensil for note-taking. 
• Notebook/ paper for note-taking. 
• A timer or stopwatch. 
• (Optional) Simple prize, such as a humorous certificate (see Preparation)

Resources:

Preparation

• Read and familiarize yourself with the activity.
• Review the websites that students will be navigating throughout the game.
• If utilizing a media center or library: ensure computers are working and accessible prior to activity
• Prepare one or more prizes for the game winners (optional)

Resources:

Amazon.com

Delta Airlines

Major League Baseball

Stanford University

National Public Radio (NPR)

World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)

FunAwards.com: Free Printable Certificates

Activity Steps

1. Ask students to recall instances where they have spent time on a website and ended up exploring a completely different topic on a different site.
   
   • Encourage students to share their experiences with the class and explain how they felt during the process.
2. Display the websites that students will be exploring in the activity and remind them how each website contains a large number of internal web pages. 
   
   • Amazon.com or an internet-based merchant of many products
   • Delta.com or a commercial airline website 
   • MLB.com or a sports/entertainment organization website
   • Stanford.edu or a university or educational organization website
   • NPR.org or a media outlet website
   • WorldWildLife.org or a charity/ nonprofit organization website
3. Introduce the objective of the game:
   
   • Tell students to select any one of the websites you have listed on the board. 
   • Then, only by clicking links, their goal is to reach a popular internet search engine, such as Google.com or Yahoo.com. 
   • Whoever reaches a search engine first will be the winner for the day.
4. Ask students to predict which ones would be easiest to leave.
   
   • TIP: Clarify what "leaving" a website means: clicking on a link in the website that leads to a different organization's website.
5. Count students' predictions with a show of hands for each website.
6. Remind students to take notes of the new websites they find during their navigation game.
7. Once students have understood the objective, begin the game. 
   
   • Circulate and respond to questions or offer advice as needed. 
   • If students struggle to find links that lead away from a website, encourage them to begin again with another website from the list you provided.
   • If a student achieves a goal, direct them to the "history" function on their browser to identify their pathway to the external site.
8. Reconvene the group and invite students to discuss their experiences. 
   
   • Students should report that all of the websites included many links, but that these links normally led to another page on the website. 
   • Students may note that news sites contain links that may navigate to an external site.
   • Invite volunteers to demonstrate how they successfully navigated away from one of the given websites and landed on a search engine.
9. Discuss the activity with students, you may use these prompts to aid in facilitation:
   • Why do you think websites avoid linking elsewhere? 
     
     • For many websites, the goal is to keep users on the website, especially if they might spend money.
   • Why do you think it was challenging to find a link to a search engine
     
     • Search engines are sites where users can search the internet, and they tend to be well known. 
     • Websites for large businesses or similar organizations have little reason to send people to a search engine.
   • What did you learn from this activity?
     • (Possible answer: Many websites are designed to occupy the time and interest of their users.)
10. (Optional) Conclude the activity by awarding the certificates or other prizes to the students who were most successful in completing the day's task. 

Resources:

Variations

1. Invite students to try to navigate from the website of one business or institution to one of its rivals, such as from Delta Airlines to United Airlines, or from Stanford University to Harvard University, or from the World Wildlife Fund to the Sierra Club.
2. You may wish to revise this list of sites to include sites that are familiar to students, such as the home page of their school or school district.

Resources: