Learn how to evaluate medical information as a non-medical expert using information literacy principles such as currency, noting research questions and methods and verifying claims with multiple sources.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive, Lesson, Reading
This How To Do Research Unit Guide provides a lesson-to-lesson foundation for teaching:● What primary sources are● Real vs. fake information (evaluating sources)● Document analysis● Different ways to obtain information● How to formulate research questions● How to find answers to research questions● The hows and whys of citations (annotated bibliography)By the time students get to high school, they should have a basic understanding of how to effectively do research. Considering that there are so many steps involved in the research process, the earlier these necessary skills are taught, the more time students will be able to devote to theiractual projects. Moreover, in today’s world, information literacy needs to be achieved at an earlier age, so students can learn to be smart consumers, responsible sharers, and presenters of information. Throughout the research process, students will learn that there will be dead ends, questions that are too broad or too narrow, questions that do not have answers. This is an accurate reflection of what their experiences will continue to be as they move into higher level research projects in their educational careers.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Full Course, Homework/Assignment, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study
Introductory video on evaluating sources for credibility.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
Learners use the internet to collect information for school or daily life. Search engines can produce an excessive number of potential sources, even when filtering the search. This lesson will teach the adult learner a stepwise approach to defining key words, specifying criteria, and evaluating the appropriateness of sources. The learner will develop a customized checklist for the search and demonstrate the acquired knowledge of selecting appropriate sources.
Material Type: Lesson
Table of Contents:3. How To Use This Primary Source Set4. Historical Context7. Document Guide8. Primary Sources21. Guided Questions22. Primary Source Projects24. About Us
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Primary Source
This resource was created by Megan Andersen in collaboration with Crystal Hurt as part of the 2019-20 ESU-NDE Digital Age Pedagogy Project. Educators worked with coaches to create Unit Plans promoting BlendEd Learning Best Practices. This Unit Plan is designed for 10th Grade ELA.
Material Type: Unit of Study
This is a 2-page "quick guide" handout about evaluating sources and a basic framework that students can use to evaluate their topics and analyze how well their sources support those topics.
Material Type: Student Guide
This is a short lesson that uses music to drive home the importance of citing sources. This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?"
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This is an unabashedly practical guide for the student fact-checker. It supplements generic information literacy with the specific web-based techniques that can get you closer to the truth on the web more quickly. We will show you how to use date filters to find the source of viral content, how to assess the reputation of a scientific journal in less than five seconds, and how to see if a tweet is really from the famous person you think it is or from an impostor. We’ll show you how to find pages that have been deleted, figure out who paid for the web site you’re looking at, and whether the weather portrayed in that viral video actual matches the weather in that location on that day. We’ll show you how to check a Wikipedia page for recent vandalism, and how to search the text of almost any printed book to verify a quote. We’ll teach you to parse URLs and scan search result blurbs so that you are more likely to get to the right result on the first click. And we’ll show you how to avoid baking confirmation bias into your search terms.
Material Type: Textbook
The primary sources in this set can be used for inquiry-based learning exercises and projects. Each document falls under the umbrella topic of voter education, and students are encouraged to annotate in the margins in order to support the development of document analysis and critical thinking skills. Suggested projects that make use of this set’s primary sources are also included for the educator as a springboard for research-based projects.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Case Study, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Primary Source, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study
The lessons in this unit are designed for an ELA class. They are intended to be used, if possible, in a collaborative unit with a history teacher using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Material Type: Lesson Plan, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy
Use this lesson to help students distinguish between primary and secondary sources and use them in them in the appropriate context.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students use the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why, and how) to evaluate an information source and determine if they would cite it in a paper. This assignment is used as an information literacy exercise at the University of Tennessee Libraries, where students are given a New York Times column to read before completing the assignment in groups. For a copy of this resource as it was originally given to students, go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vtrPDaeiV6VFJUYUNzRGlfb00/view?usp=sharing. Results of the use of this activity were shared in an article published in the journal Reference & User Services Quarterly 53, no. 4 (Summer 2014): 334-347.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment
In this lesson students use the Informational Text Analysis Tool to deconstruct the essential elements of informational text. Informational text is more important to teachers than ever before, especially with the rise of the new Core standards. The Library of Congress is an excellent resource for finding and using texts to build students' reading skills.Through a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational and primary source texts, students build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
An activity/ worksheet on the topic of evaluating sources; students generate their own strategies for evlauating sources, compare to the CRAAP test, and use their strategy on an information source.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This Remote Learning Plan was created by Cyndi Shinn in collaboration with Rick Meyer as part of the 2020 ESU-NDE Remote Learning Plan Project. Educators worked with coaches to create Remote Learning Plans as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.The attached Remote Learning Plan is designed for Grade Band Range 3- 6 Language Arts students. Students will write an Informational/Informative Writing. This Remote Learning Plan addresses the following NDE Standard: English Language Arts - Writing It is expected that this Remote Learning Plan will take students 5 days with 45 to 60 minutes for each lesson to complete.Here is the direct link to the Google Doc:Informational/Informative Writing
Material Type: Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy
In this lesson, students will learn about a topic in three different text formats. They will then evaluate each format to determine the pros and cons. Students will also assess the credibility of each text.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Commercial simulation software for solar plants is readily available, but source codes are not. Many articles in the open literature give governing equations and algorithms for solar plant simulations, but adopters must program them themselves. This paper presents an open-source, ready-to-run, model of a parabolic trough solar field with a user-friendly interface in the Simulink® environment. The intention is to provide a foundational tool for the solar thermal research community, similar to the Tennessee Eastman Challenge Problem employed for chemical processes. The flow rate of the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the angle of incidence are the manipulated variables of the model. The size of the solar field may be altered. Both open- and closed-loop responses to disturbances may be investigated. The source code of the model is freely available at the Open Educational Resource Commons, which investigators can utilize and extend.
Material Type: Module
An ecosystem of free open source tools for improving the rigor and reproducibility of research is thriving. Information professionals at research institutions must stay informed about what tools are available and how they compare. Ideally, information professionals can also onboard researchers to kickstart adoption of these tools. However, developing quality curriculum to train researchers on new tools requires expertise in the tool itself, which leaves many researchers without training on tools that may benefit their research. This course will train participants to run hands-on, quality modules designed to onboard researchers to four free open source tools. Participants will experience each module, practice the exercises, and explore the training material needed to run the module themselves. An instructor guide that includes the module outline, objectives, description, frequently asked questions, pre- and post-participant surveys, target audience, and instructions for running a successful module is provided for each tool taught. This course will train participants to run modules on unique aspects of four free open source tools for researchers: Binder: Share your computational environment, code, and research notebooks. Renku: Document and share your analysis pipelines. Open Science Framework: Create a centralized, structured workspace for your research materials. KnitR: Knit your R code with your analysis narrative in one executable research notebook and capture your dependencies. Many participants already run short-duration training events at their institutions. This course is ideal for those participants who wish to improve the quality and variety of the training they already offer to researchers. Participants who do not currently run short-duration training events at their institutions will benefit from the course by learning an accessible and efficient way of getting started with these four modules.
Material Type: Full Course
Whether information is needed for study or daily life, the Internet has developed into an essential source of knowledge. Collecting information from the Internet may seem simple, however, at times one may get an overwhelmingly large number of results for simple queries, some of which may not be relevant or reliable. This lesson teaches learners a step-wise approach to defining keywords, using search parameters to refine a search, and evaluating the appropriateness of sources. It prepares learners to conduct Internet searches effectively, and collect relevant information in the least amount of time.
Material Type: Lesson
