Assignment

Introduction to Fact Checking

Submitted by Emilia Marcyk on October 25th, 2019
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Short Description: 

This class outline is based on the Four Moves and a Habit from Mike Caufield's Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers.
It was designed for a first year writing class for students in an interdisciplinary STEM major. For their main class assignment, they were investigating a "fact" within their chosen scientific field, and tracing it to its origin. In addition to our in-class work they were also assigned to read:

Rekdal, O. B. (2014). Academic urban legends. Social Studies of Science, 44(4), 638–654. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312714535679

The class was designed to take 70 minutes, with approximately 72 students attending. The attached PDF gives an outline for the lesson, with notes for further context.

Attachments: 
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factchecking-presentation-and-outline.pdfdisplayed 721 times1.34 MB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will use the Four Moves and a Habit to trace the source of a claim, in order to:

  • understand where a claim originated
    make an informed choice about whether to believe a claim
  • incorporate similar strategies into future academic work
Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Marcyk, Emilia. "Introduction to Fact Checking ." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/introduction-fact-checking.