Evaluating Websites - Making Sense of the Web
A WebQuest for Middle School Students
You will be conducting research on the Internet for many years to come and therefore will need to learn how to evaluate the sites you access and learn how to separate fact from opinion. This WebQuest will help you learn how to scrutinize material you find to determine if the information is valid and useable for your research.
You are about to embark on an Internet journey and will evaluate four websites for their accuracy. To assist you in this activity, an Evaluation Form has been prepared that will allow you to measure your results. As you visit the sites below, use the form to record your notes. You will work in pairs and discuss the results as you travel along.
Step 1: Before you begin to evaluate sites, you will visit the Pre-Evaluation sites listed in the resources below and complete the Fact and Opinion worksheet.
Step 2: Using the
Evaluation
Form, you will evaluate each website for the following attributes:
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Authority - Who is the author of the web page? What are his or her credentials? Have you been provided with contact information? | |
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Accuracy - From your common knowledge, does this site appear to be accurate? Why or why not? | |
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Objectivity - Does this site contain a bias? Is the author trying to sway you somehow? | |
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Coverage - Does the author present the entire issue, or is it one-sided? | |
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Currency - How current is this website? Does this have any bearing on the information presented? | |
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Design - Is this site designed by someone who knows what they are doing, or does it appear to have been created by a child? | |
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Verifiability - Can this information be verified with another source? | |
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Which of the above evaluation components is the most important? Why? |
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Helping Kids Tell Fact from Opinion on the Web | |
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Fact and Opinion Worksheet | |
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Evaluating Web Pages | |
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Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators - Critical Evaluation | |
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Evaluating Criteria |
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Evaluation Form | |
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Feline Reactions to Bearded Men | |
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California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge | |
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Dihydrogen Monoxide Research | |
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Sellafield Zoo |
Follow-up Activity
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Fact or Opinion Activity |
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Web Evaluation Quiz (NOTE: Students must have 2 browser windows or tabs open. One for the quiz and one to view the websites.) |
Now that you have learned how to evaluate websites, you are ready to conduct research on the web!
Globe - http://www.itu.int/aboutitu/annual_report/2001/images/010051.jpg
Background - http://www.grsites.com/modperl/tile.cgi?dir=comp&fn=comp022&ext=gif
Last updated 4/2009
Contact Information: Nancy Fitzgerald
