Journal 8: Find the Truth on Pacific Tree Octopus

Journal 8: "Find the Truth About the Pacific Tree Octopus" NETS-3

Ferrell, K. (August 2011). Find the truth about the pacific tree octopus. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(1), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-august-2011.aspx

   In this article, Ferrell assigned his 4th grade class an assignment that was different but the assignment educated his students about the negative aspects of googling without using critical thinking skills.  Students learned to detect what pieces of information are valid and what is not.  Everything started when the assignment was given.   The directions were for students to start a research project by teaching them and improving their research skills at the same time.  Students were given two topics to research and share what they learned.  The first topic was “The Tree Octopus” and the second topic was “All about Explorers.”  After researching their two topics, students shared their  findings and discussed how there were some flaws in their research (Ferrell 34.)  During discussion, student compared their findings from the websites and found many claims and facts that were not valid.  The discussion continued towards what to look for in websites that are reputable.  Ferrell states that he has done many research lessons in the past but none had such a lasting impact like this one because students actively did their own research and learned in the process.

Question 1: When discussing what to look for in the research of factual websites, what did the teacher present to the students?

  

    Ferrell presented his students with the 5 W’s which are who, what, when, where, and why when looking at websites and deciding if that website has factual information that is valid.  They also went over how it is necessary to look for suffixes such as .edu, .gov, and etc. and to also double check sources.

Question 2: How are some students able to figure out that some information in a website is erroneous?

  

    As a teaching method, some teachers collaborate and create websites that contain information that is not factual. Ferrell states that these websites are created in order to educate students how to research and decide if a website is reputable. Student on their own realize that a website is not valid and therefore use their critical thinking skills.