Web Addresses
True or False: If a website ends in .edu, .org, or .gov it is absolutely reliable
False
Why do we want to examine who the author of the website or article is?
We want to know if the author is truly qualified to write about the topic.
Why do I want to know the date an article was published?
To see if the information in the article is current enough for your research
What is one thing I would want to know about a website when I am considering reliability? (More than one answer are correct.)
Are they trying to sell me anything? Are they trying to persuade me to believe something? Are they biased or are they attempting to be balanced in their presentation of the facts?
What could the first few websites listed when I search using Google be?
They might be paid advertisements
What do .edu and .org have in common?
They are both educational sites.
True or False, if there is no author listed, you should absolutely not use that article.
False, it could still be good reliable information. Just keep looking.
If there is no article date is given, what should you do? (Hint: there is more than one answer.)
You can ask a teacher, or look for other signs of trustworthy/untrustworthiness.
You are researching whether eggs are a healthy part of the diet. You find an article talking about how bad eggs are for the environment. Do you click on it? Why or why not?
There's not really a wrong answer!
True or False, Wikipedia is always trustworthy.
False
While some articles have mostly true information, not all are because anyone can edit it.
Companies (for-profit) businesses have websites ending in this.
What is .com
Say an article from NASA has no author! Would you consider it to be reliable? Why?
Yes. The information is provided to us by NASA, on the official government agency's webpage. It could be written by a group of scientists.
A doctor's article has no date of publication. Could you use it?
Probably. Doctors are an educational source, but you can look further.
True or False: You can USUALLY trust educational or government websites.
True
When searching in Google, explain how you can make sure that just a government agency or an educational website are in your results.
By typing in your search, a colon, then the site ending you want
such as Lyme Disease:edu or tornados:gov
If you come across a site ending in this, then you are viewing a federal government site.
What is .gov
Would you consider a website with multiple misspellings and a .org ending trustworthy or not?
Not reliable.
You are researching new computer displays online and find an ad showing new computers. What should you do?
A: Click on it
B: Start checking for signs of trustworthiness
C: Ignore it and keep looking
B. If a site is showing ads, it needs money, and will probably have an agenda.
You are doing research on tornadoes and find this article. Its URL says it's from Scholastic and is a .org. Would you consider this to be a reliable article?
Yes. Scholastic is a news magazine that is meant for education. They publish articles for teachers to use with students.
Name two search engines
Google, FireFox, Safari, Mozilla, Yahoo, Bing, Ecosia, OceanHero
Organizations that are typically non-profit organizations end in this.
What is .org
If someone who has a doctorate in science reviewed a high schooler's article untrustworthy, should you use it?
No, because someone who is more knowledgable has proven it to be incorrect.
When you are looking on a website researching brains, you find an article saying that anyone who has memory loss will die before 60 years old. What do you do? (Hint: there is more than one answer.)
You could ask a teacher if it is trustworthy, or you could look for signs of untrustworthiness.
True or false: If a teacher says a website is trustworthy, it is definetly trustwothy.
False. It depends on the teacher recommending it. While it most likely is, there are some instances where it might not be.
Name one database/online service that is used at Baldwin for researching school projects
PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next, Scholastic, TrueFlix, BookFlix, Britannica