Statement of Purpose/Goal: The purpose of this activity is to enlighten students about the complexities of the internet. Students must learn that information found on the internet should be accompanied by immense critical thinking, regarding its authority and accuracy. The internet is a colossal place that encompasses vast amounts of information. However, it is up to the user to navigate through this information and determine the precision of the information presented. This activity will allow students to possess the tools that aid them in differentiating between legitimate and illegitimate websites, as well as the ability to decipher plausible information from improbable information. In essence, this activity will birth critical thinkers and "web-surfing scientists."

Proposed Context: My 8th grade level class will be composing 1-2 page papers regarding current events happening in our country. They will be prompted about the importance of being cautious in regards to where they receive their information; in addition to learning about ways to quickly and easily determine the legitimacy of a website. Prior to beginning the paper, the students must answer questions that reflect the validity of a potential news source for the assignment.

Activities and Procedures: Students will be directed to read Alan November's website post titled "How to Read a Web Address." Upon reading this post, students will be prompted to visit the website "www.theonion.com," and click on the article titled "Justice Observe Supreme Court Ritual By Driving Stake Through John Paul Stevens' Heart to Ensure He Dead Before Burial" (link: https://politics.theonion.com/justices-observe-supreme-court-ritual-by-driving-stake-1836634729?)

** It will be entirely up to the students and their newly acquired knowledge from November's post to decide whether or not to incorporate other news articles from www.theonion.com into their current event papers, based off of analyzing the Onion article I sent them. This decision will parallel to students' realization of the ".com" extension, the relevancy of the domain name to the website topic, the authority, and the accuracy of the content. 

After exploring and investigating the Onion article, I want my students to consider these three questions:

1. Notice the url that appears when clicking onto the article page. What content do you see? What does the .com extension most likely suggest? Why do you think that this webpage contains a .com extension? Is there any information or errors on this page that reflect the presence of this extension? Look carefully and think critically about every detail, no matter how small.
2. Carefully read the article content. Based on your own knowledge, have you ever heard of this proclaimed "longtime Supreme Court Rite?" If not or if so, I want you to research other sources beyond The Onion, and carefully choose the websites that back your claim regarding this rite. Each site you find that backs your claim, analyze the url and extension as well. What is the possible reason for the difference in the extension or url between The Onion and your chosen source? 
3. Do you see any mention of outside sources cited below The Onion's article? If not, what would be a reason for the absence of these citations? Can you find the author of this article? What do you think the point of view of the author is? Based on his/her point of view, do you believe it reflects bias? How could the author's bias, point of view, or absence of outside sources make this article an illegitimate news source for a current event paper?

After completing this exercise, students are expected to find their own news source for a current events paper, and determine it's accuracy and legitimacy based on what they learned from The Onion and the Alan November reading.