Five questions challenge starter

  1. How many varieties of apple are there in the world?
  1. What does the girl’s name ‘Maya’ mean?
  1. Who is the oldest person in the world?
  1. Can you find an artistic photograph of the Eiffel Tower?
  1. Can you find out if the children’s book Shadowsmith is a really good read or not?
  1. How many varieties of apple are there in the world?
  1. What does the girl’s name ‘Maya’ mean?
  1. Who is the oldest person in the world?
  1. Can you find an artistic photograph of the Eiffel Tower?
  1. Can you find out if the children’s book Shadowsmith is a really good read or not?

Challenge 1 Tim Berners Lee biography

Tim Berners Lee (version 1)

Berners Lee is a British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web.

Timothy John Berners Lee was born on 8 June 1955 and grew up in London. He studied physics at Oxford University and became a software engineer.

In 1980, while working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, he first described the concept of a global system, based on the concept of 'hypertext', that would allow researchers anywhere to share information. He also built a prototype called 'Enquire'.

In 1984, Berners Lee's returned to CERN, which was also home to a major European Internet node. In 1989, Berners Lee published a paper called 'Information Management: A Proposal' in which he married up hypertext with the Internet, to create a system for sharing and distributing information not just within a company, but globally. He named it the World Wide Web.

He also created the first web browser and editor. The world's first website, was launched on 6 August 1991. It explained the World Wide Web concept and gave users an introduction to getting started with their own websites.

In 1994, Berners Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. He has served as director of the consortium since then. He also works as a senior research scientist at LCS which has now become the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Tim Berners Lee (version 2)

Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web. He was born on 8 June 1955 and grew up in London. He studied physics at Oxford University and afterwards became a software engineer.

In 1980, while working at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, he first described the idea of a global system, based on the concept of 'hypertext', that would enable researchers anywhere to share information. He built a prototype called 'Enquire'.

In 1989, Berners Lee published 'Information Management: A Proposal' in which he described a system for sharing and distributing information globally. He called it the World Wide Web.

The world's first website, was created by Berners Lee and was launched on 6 August 1991. It explained his World Wide Web idea and included information on how users could get started with their own websites.

Tim Berners Lee (version 3)

Tim Berners Lee was born in June 1955 in the UK. He studied physics at Oxford University and sent onto became a software engineer. He invented the World Wide Web.

It was while working at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, that he came up with his idea of a ‘global system’, that would ultimately enable researchers anywhere in the world to share information. During his time here he built a prototype of his idea which he called 'Enquire'.

He described a system for sharing and distributing information across the world in 1989, which he called the World Wide Web. Berners Lee created the world’s first website ( which was launched on the 6thAugust 1991. It explained his World Wide Web idea and included information on how users could get started with their own websites.

Teacher reference:

Challenge 2 Image scenarios

You search for something and it comes up saying that you cannot access it and will have to change settings. What do you do?

  1. Change settings?
  2. Come back out from the site?

You come across a news story that states that some readers may find the content/images distressing. What do you do?

  1. Carry on anyway, you have been warned and you are not worried
  2. Come away from that page and decide it is not for you

You gain access to something with distressing or ‘bad’ images. What do you do?

  1. Tell an appropriate adult (they can block the site – the settings may not be correct, as well as ensure that you are ok)
  2. Leave the site and hope you don’t come across anything like that again
  3. Continue on the site assuming it was just that one image or content

Keeping Wikipedia reliable

Session 2 challenge 3Jimmy Wales’s web research

Website reliability list

  • Is it a well-known source of reliable information, e.g. BBC, public museums, National Geographic.
  • Is there an author? – this shows that the person who has written the information is confident enough in what they have written to include their name
  • Sources of information - acknowledged and links to other sites/documents included
  • Domain – some domains guarantee a certain type of organisation (e.g. .ac.uk or sch.uk is a university, school or educational provider, while .gov.uk is a UK government site). Other domains such as .com, .co.uk (e.g. or ) tend to be businesses and organisations while .org (e.g. ) is often used by charities. Although these business, organisation and charity sites are not unreliable, there may be a bias to the information presented and the manner in which it is presented. URLs that use different, less commonly acknowledged domains, may be less reliable
  • Site design – often a well-designed site can indicate information may be more reliable, but not always
  • Site maintenance and standardisation - A reliable site will be looked after and kept up to date. It will not, for example, have broken links to pages or poor spelling and grammar. The writing style will be consistent and clear. There should also be a ’last updated’ date visible which tells you if the information is current
  • Your agenda vs a website’s agenda - depending on what you are looking for you will need to decide if the ‘purpose’ of what might be a reliable website is reliable for the type of information you are after. For example, if you are looking for peoples’ opinions on tourist destinations then blogs and review sites are what you need, but if you simply want a spread of factual information you may find a tourist information or government run site gives you less biased information

© Original resource copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users. We refer you to our warning, at the foot of the block overview, about links to other websites.