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Title: Fact or Fiction

 

Project Authors:

 

Tammye Shadle, Springtown middle school. Springtown ISD, Springtown, Texas

 

tshadle@springtownisd.net.

 

Donna Erikson, Lyncourt UFSD. Syracuse, New York.

 

derikson@lyncourt.cnyric.org

 

Subject Area and Intended Grade Level: Technology Applications Grade 8

 

Life Science

 

Description:

 

Are you tired of your students using bogus websites while conducting their research? Here’s a few hoax sites to get your students to think about, whether what they are reading is fact or fiction.

 

Learner Outcome:

 

The student will learn how to effectively use the internet to locate and validate factual websites while conducting research on any given topic.

 

Students will decide whether or not a given website is factual or fiction

 

 

 

Time:

 

2 video conferencing sessions

 

Each conference will be 38-40 minutes, or 2 class periods

 

Preparation:

 

Each individual teacher will have already discussed with their class:

 

1. That they will be video-conferencing with another class in ____ (Texas, New York) on the procedures used to locate and validate factual websites on the internet while conducting research.

 

2. Ground rules for interacting with the other class

 

3. Roles will be assigned for video conferencing.

 

4. The agenda for the period, which will be posted and students will also have a hard copy.

 

5. A copy of the powerpoint will be handed out to each student.

 

Materials:

 

Paper

 

Pen/Pencil

 

Agenda handouts

 

Powerpoint handouts

 

Research project handouts

 

Videoconference Agenda:

 

Include the agenda for the connection and who will do each part.

 

Begin with roll call and introductions.

 

Some type of presentation/video using bogus website(s).

 

Discussion about how to tell if the site is a bogus website(s) using guided questions.

 

Powerpoint on how to check for validity and reliability.

 

Post Activities:

 

What activities do you recommend for follow-up to this videoconference?

 

Students will do research on a chosen topic using what they have learned from the videoconference.

 

Assessment & Evaluation:

 

How will you assess the learning? How will you assess the use of videoconferencing?

 

Assessment will be the videoconferencing- how well they performed their duty; how well they communicated information with the other class; what they did with the information they received; the final report that the student produces.

 

Implementation Plans:

 

Draft your ideas of how you might use this project next year. For Technology class, it will be part of a unit on Online Research.

 

For Science class, it will be part of their Science Fair lab report.

 

When might you want to do the project? As we are at the middle school level, and change classes every period, we are going to check with each other once we start back to school and compare our schedules to determine when we will be able to do the project

 

Who will be the lead coordinator? We will take turns, one of us will lead the first conference, the other will lead the second conference.

 

How many classes might participate from each area? I have up to 6 classes each semester.

 

I would like to get 2 classes to participate initially.

 

What time of year would this project be implemented?

 

When will be better for you?

 

I am thinking sometime in October initially; then second teleconferencing in March or so.