Have you ever been tricked? Did you see it coming or were you totally surprised? Maybe it was a magic trick performed by a professional or an outrageous tale told by a friend. Take a minute to tell your neighbor the story. (Don’t take long or you’ll run out of time to do the fun stuff today!)
You can be deceived by information on the Internet just as easily. Information can sometimes look and sound real, but if you examine it closely and ask good questions, the secret of the magic trick (the truth) will be revealed. Try this.
Don’t be fooled by faulty information ever again! Today you will learn a few "tricks of the trade" so you’ll know what to expect the next time page after page of facts and figures flash before your eyes.
Abracadabra! Bookmark these tricks for a little fun after school.
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Magic tricks by MysteryNet’s Kid Mysteries
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A trick to try on a friend, thanks to National Geographic’s Betcha Can!
So, you've learned to find information, record notes in your word processor, and use spreadsheets and databases to organize the data. Don't stop there! Use the information to solve a problem that is real or important to you. Act on the information by sharing with others what you learn. The exercise that follows shows you how to do just that!
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Identify a real-world school or community-related problem to solve or a topic you would like to explore. Jump on over to Tom Synder’s Decisions Online "Topic Picker" for the latest issues from today’s headlines. For example, since you study energy in fifth grade, you might select the topic "Energy and the Environment" to determine if you think we’re headed for a major energy crisis. Should we drill for more oil or is energy conservation the answer? Go there now and pick a topic. Read the short description for your chosen topic and quickly return to this page.
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Stop now and write down key words related to your topic. For example, a few key words for "Energy and the Environment" would be: energy crisis, energy conservation, environment, oil drilling, & Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Dive into NC WiseOwl periodical databases to gather current and reliable information related to the topic you picked in step 1. Read at least 3 different articles from different sources to explore the issue from many different perspectives. Using the example from step #1, your search statement might look like this: "energy crisis" AND "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" AND environment.
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View colorful graphs from Tom Synder’s Online Voting site to see how other students feel about your topic.
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Grab a clean sheet of paper. Fold it or draw lines to make four large squares.
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You’re about to open a window containing questions for each of the 4 large blocks. Think about the questions and make notes in the matching numbered spaces on your paper. View the questions.
Use this time to continue adding
information to the database you started a few weeks ago.
Don’t
forget to save your
work often and to make
a backup copy of your file.
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