Students investigate the validity of the 6 Degrees of Separation/small-world statement (any two people are six or fewer social connections away from each other)
Milgram's experiment: choose a different state to be starting points, and the school as the endpoint of a chain of correspondence
Send random individuals from these states information packets (including a letter about the experiment and information about the target contact)
If the individual knew the target person by first-name basis, they can send the letter to them directly
Otherwise, the individual sends the letter to a friend or relative who is more likely to know the target person (track the names of who has gotten the letter; also, send a postcard every time to track progress)
When the packet comes to the target person, count how many contacts it passed through
6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon/oracleofbacon.org
Bacon Number - number of connections between Kevin Bacon and actor/actress (mutually appeared in films)
Claim: No one who has ever been in an American film ever has a Bacon number greater than four
Suitable for: Lesson 2
Constellations are examples of networks (and in some cases, trees)
Suitable for: Lesson 6
If your students are interested in or are studying Chemistry, it may be worth spending some time discussing how networks are used to represent and analyse molecular structures (e.g. alkanes)
Suitable for: Lesson 6
The Internet is an example of a network: webpages connected together through hyperlinks
This can be demonstrated using the Wiki Game, where students must travel from a starting Wikipedia entry to a target entry using hyperlinks
Suitable for: Lesson 2
Handshakes and Disease
Students can conduct an activity to demonstrate the spread of a disease (by handshaking adjacent students in the classroom)
Roommate preferences
Students can list down two people they would not mind having as roommates, then construct a class network
Suitable for: Lesson 2
The class can create a phone tree: a system for quickly spreading messages to many people.
Students can then use the phone tree (or other trees via instant messaging services) to notify each other about class announcements or ask for help
Students should construct and share an organisation chart of the phone tree
Suitable for: Lesson 2
Students can create and analyse examples of food webs (involving many organisms, producers/preys/predators)
By removing organisms from the food web, students can also view the effects this can have on the rest of the food web (i.e. which organisms starve/thrive)
This activity can be done as a class using different animals, and representing the directed network using string
Suitable for: Lesson 3
MEDIUM: Airport - https://www.flightconnections.com/route-map-qantas-qf (map)
customer needs to fly back home as soon as possible, you need to find them a route they can take
Starting from London (Heathrow Airport), the customer would like to get back to Sydney Airport; however, the direct flight to Sydney has been cancelled
Customer will need your help travelling through different travel hubs to get home
Find the shortest path back home, then consider the following additional concerns: wait times at airports, cost of flights
HARD: NSW Train - worker wants to return home from the city
Network diagram will be complicated (many vertices); however, can assume constant travel speed
Additional Context: the Opal App (or TripView) is able to find the quickest (earliest arrival time) way home
Can include with the problem that different trains will come to their platforms at certain times, or that trains may have to wait at each station (to allow for passenger movement or train track changes)
Other scenarios: line undergoing maintenance or sudden issue (track no longer available - must reroute)
See Resources for Lesson/Activity Ideas, e.g.
Good Will Hunting (Movie) - Tree Problem
Family Trees
Submarine Cable Map
Bridge Problems
City/Council Maps
House Floor Plans
Three Utilities Problem