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My fourth grade class was discussing how to distinguish between fact and opinion. With elections looming next week, we started discussing the political ads they've seen. As we discussed the things we read in books and newspapers and watch on TV, I asked them how they know what is true or not; what is fact and what is someone's opinion.
As we discussed what they read both in print and on the Internet I found they often accept what they read as fact, without questioning it. We visited www.dhmo.org and explored the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Before the students could get too worried about this "dangerous substance" that has caused many deaths, I wrote out the chemical symbol for it on the board: h2o.
The reaction was "But it looks like real website." With a little research we discovered that the site was set up as a joke. Here are a couple of other websites in the same vein. Conservation minded students might want to get involved with efforts to Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Others might be concerned about California's Velcro Crop under Challenge.
Alan November has a list of websites for students to evaluate. He has posted links to websites appropriate to various age groups. Additional discussion about the validity of websites is found in the October issue of Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation's magazine.
While we often provide students with a list of websites to visit and school district filters keep them from visiting inappropriate sites, we want to provide our students with the tools they need to evaluate websites. We won't always be there. They won't always be surfing behind a school district's filter.
Even with college students the desire to "believe it if it's on the web" is an issue. When I've taught chemistry I've used that Dihydrogen Monoxide website - it's a good cautionary tale.
Posted by: Maria H. Andersen | February 14, 2008 at 06:53 PM