You can teach computer networking in high school

Abstract

NetsBlox is a visual blocks-based programming language extending Snap! with a few carefully selected abstractions to support distributed programming. In this paper, we argue that with the help of NetsBlox, some of the fundamental concepts of computer networking can be included in the high school computer science curriculum. Specifically, we describe a set of curricular units that would fit nicely in the AP Computer Science Principles course. High school students in two short-term studies showed great engagement and were able to complete simple computer networking tasks.