[LM_NET] HIT: middle school hoax website lesson

[Suzette <schoollibr@YAHOO.COM>]

Thank you to everyone who sent me information on this topic. I’m sorry it’s taken 
me a little while to compile it all. 
   
  Mostly, I received tons of hoax sites out there – great sources to create fun 
lessons with!
   
  Here is a link to a site about a fictitious painter named Jacopo di Poggibonsi:
  http://www.umich.edu/~engtt516/lifetimes.html
  And here is a lesson plan that uses the Jacopo site to teach awareness:
  http://www.saskschools.ca/~ischool/tisdale/integrated/wysiwyg/teacher.htm
   
  The following is a lesson plan that one librarian sent:

Today we did a great lesson with our freshmen (who had not had much info literacy 
instruction previously) using 
www.carthage.edu/ais/library/exercises/whales/whales.htm  

I adapted their assessment page (link on that site) by taking out some questions 
that didn't apply and simplifying the language. The students got a folded sheet of 
paper with instructions on the front to write down 5 things that they knew about 
whales ("activating prior knowledge" in teacher talk) =I told them that we were 
digging in their brains for what they already knew and quick, quick, quick! 
brainstorming where spelling didn't count (they liked that and I used a stopwatch 
to give 1 minute exactly. 

Then they went to the website (my website isn't up so they had to type in the 
address. After the first group, we told kids ahead of time to watch spelling on 
library and exercises). They opened the paper to the assessment and tried to answer 
the first question about date of website and any other 4 questions in just 5 
minutes. 

Next we talked about what they knew about whales and what that website said. Of 
course the salt water vs. fresh water usually came up first. Some kids noticed 
misspellings on the page (one of the assessment questions asked about that) and we 
all said that the date was really old to have no updates. The "expert" has no real 
credentials listed, no affiliation with university, etc. And the t-shirts to 
support the 'research' were over $100 each. 

Lastly, the kids went to the back of the sheet where we asked "Is this a good 
website about whales?" and "Why do you say that?" and "What did this exercise show 
you about good websites?" and had a place to write their name (this was for a daily 
participation grade for that science class) 

[Then we let them loose to search online for a website about their assigned 
scientist (the main project) with instructions to let me or the teacher know why 
they chose that website as good and reliable.  Next week the kids will use their 
website source, a database source and article from reference book to put together 
either a mobile of fascinating facts or a Wanted poster or a brochure advertising 
their scientist coming to our school to speak about his/her "new discovery" (like 
Newton and theory of gravity) - I can't wait to see their projects and display them 
in the library!! ] 

Hope you have fun with these sites with your students - the more critically they 
look at websites, the better, and fun exercises like this sharpen those skills!
   
   
  And here is the list of hoax sites I received:
   
  Dihydrogen Monoxide, or water http://www.dhmo.org/
  The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
  Dihydrogen Monoxide - DHMO Homepage http://www.dhmo.org/
  RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center's- male pregnancy http://www.malepregnancy.com
  California Velcro Crop http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html
  Cats reactions to men with beards study 
http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html 
  RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center's- GenoChoice http://www.genochoice.com/
  McWhortle Enterprises http://www.mcwhortle.com/index.htm
  BoilerPlate http://www.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/
  Facts about series http://www.idiotica.com/encyclopedia/
  Penguin Warehouse http://www.penguinwarehouse.com/
  Welcome To The Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/
  Case analysis of a killer storm (Dorothy&Toto, look for references to Wizard of 
Oz) http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Conference_papers/SELS96/WoO.html
  Create your own genetically healthy child online http://www.genochoice.com/
  Buy Dehydrated Water http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/
  Mike Sandman – Chicago ’s Telecom Expert http://www.sandman.com/telco.html
  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/_eval.html
  Civil War Facts http://www.idiotica.com/cranium/encyclopedia/content/civilwar.htm
  http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com/browse.asp?folder=83136
  http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoaxsites.html
  http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoaxsites2.html
  RYT Hospital and Dwayne Medical Center...home of the first male pregnancy?
  http://www.rythospital.com/
  "velcro farms"  http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html
  www.thedogisland.com
  http://www.petsorfood.com/ 
  These pages offer some more information on scams websites out there
  http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/bogusweb/
  http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/emailhoax/ 
  The above two sites are part of the following site: 
http://www.shambles.net/informationliteracy/
   
   
  Suzette LaBelle
  SLMS Student UAlbany
  Albany, NY
  suzette@midtel.net

                
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