Resources for Teachers - Finding and verifying information

Stay on the Path Lesson Two: All That Glitters is Not Gold

In this lesson students learn how to authenticate online information by comparing “facts” from the website www.allaboutexplorers.com with more authoritative sources.

Printable activities for younger children

These printable activity sheets introduce basic media literacy skills and concepts and are suitable for use in homes, schools and libraries. They can be completed independently, but children will learn more if you discuss the activities with them. Younger children may need help reading the instructions and completing some activities.

Stay on the Path Lesson Four: Scavenger Hunt

In this lesson, students apply their searching and critical thinking skills to learn how to find legitimate online sources for downloading and streaming movies, music and videos.

Digital Skills for Democracy: Assessing online information to make civic choices

In this activity, students :

  • think about the importance of making sure they have trustworthy information before they make a decision on a political or electoral issue
  • explore a series of scenarios designed to teach five strategies for verifying information: find the original, verify the source, check other information, read factchecking articles, and turn to places you trust 
  • reflect on the impact of false and misleading information in politics

Reality Check: Getting the Goods on Science and Health

In this lesson, students start by considering the wide range of science and health information they are likely to encounter in news or through social media. They read an article on a scientific topic to help them understand the particular challenges of verifying science and health information and then use an educational computer game to practice skills in critically reading health and science stories. Finally, students compile a list of reliable sources they can turn to for verifying health and science stories.