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Grade 5 Social Studies · World 9: Into the Digital Age · Level 88
The Internet
Explain its impact.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 88
- In 1969, during the Cold War, the U.S. military paid for a network called ARPANET. It let faraway computers share information. That was the start of the Internet.
- The Internet is a worldwide network that links computers. For years, it was mostly used by scientists and universities.
- In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist working in Switzerland, proposed the World Wide Web: pages you could reach by clicking links. It was soon free for anyone to use.
- In the 1990s, millions of Americans got online. Email carried messages in moments. People read news, did research, and shopped from home. New businesses were born.
- It spread quickly. In 1997, about 18 percent of American homes had Internet. Just three years later, it was about 42 percent.
- The Internet brought new problems too. Anyone can post something false, so check a second source. Keep private things private, and ask a grown-up if something seems wrong.
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:
- SS5H7.c — Explain the impact of the personal computer and the Internet on American life.