---
title: "Serve pages and data from your server"
course: "BE101 · What runs behind a website"
unit: "Connecting to data"
lesson: 32 of 39
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/what-runs-behind-a-website/serve-pages-and-data-from-your-server
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Serve pages and data from your server

Lesson 32 of 39 in **What runs behind a website** (BE101), unit "Connecting to data". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Add routes that map different URL paths to different responses on a local server.
- Return an HTML page and a JSON response from your own server, and view each in the browser.
- Trace the request–response cycle from your own code, connecting the producer side to the client–server and JSON concepts from Unit 1.

## Teaching notes
Continues the same minimal Flask app from the previous lesson: at the start the student has a single app.py with one route ('/') that returns a short greeting, run locally in VS Code's terminal and viewed in the browser. Keep it a light experiment — consuming live data comes next, and building real APIs is the focus of BE102.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 32 complete: Serve pages and data from your server."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Fetching data from an API" (lesson 33 of 39), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/what-runs-behind-a-website/fetching-data-from-an-api.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: Run your own server with Flask
Next lesson: Fetching data from an API