Is That a Fact?
This is the first lesson in the Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum series, though it can also be delivered independently. In it, students learn the difference between facts and opinions, and distinguish between opinions that are entirely subjective and ones that can be supported by facts. They then learn how to construct and evaluate arguments.Mixed Signals: Verifying Online Information
In this lesson, students examine two websites about unlikely animals and learn how to effectively evaluate online sources. They then create a fake website that demonstrates the misleading signals that are often mistakenly taken as signs of reliability.
Stay on the Path Lesson Three: Treasure Maps
This four-lesson unit on search skills and critical thinking teaches students how to target and specify their online searches to avoid unwanted results, how to judge whether a link, search result or website is legitimate or phony, and how to find legitimate sources online for media works such as music, videos and movies. In this lesson, students apply what they have learned in the first two lessons to find and verify information online.
Online Propaganda and the Proliferation of Hate
In this lesson students learn about the ways that propaganda techniques are used to promote hatred and intolerance online.
Break the Fake Tip #2: Find the source
Because it’s so easy to copy and share things online, it’s important to find out where something originally came from before you decide whether or not to trust it. Someone might have shared it with you on social media, or a news story might be based on someone else’s story.