Evaluating Information & Academic Research

Introduction

This week in class, we got to practice and learn more about a skill that will be important in not only our college careers, but in the rest of our lives. We learned how to evaluate sources to see if they're reliable. We also tested our skills at finding reliable sources.

Monday

On Monday, we discussed how to tell real news from fake news. We discussed where we typically go to find reliable sources for research papers and such. We all mostly agreed that we usually go to Galileo or we use Google Scholar. Taylor also showed us a few tricks on how to narrow our searches in Galileo to more easily find what we're looking for. Then we got to have a little fun as Dra. McGrath gave us a little quiz on fake news. We were shown the first page of 21 different news articles, and we had to determine whether they were real or fake. Some of them were pretty surprising. By about the tenth news article, we were learning what to look for without having to try and read the entire first page. The best things you can look for when quickly evaluating the information given to you are the source that wrote it as well as the source of any pictures used. Most pictures used in fast news articles aren't everything they seem to be. For example, some news sites that try to generate a quick reaction about a recent hurricane might be inclined to use an outdated picture of a worse one in the past. At the end of class, we were asked to prepare a powerful question and find a blog and academic article related to it. 

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we were asked to bring in our sources and information from the homework assigned to us on Monday. Taylor was also left to deal with us by herself so props to her for surviving that. Since Dra. McGrath had a meeting, Taylor got to teach us about the CRAAP method of checking your sources. CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. These five things are the most important things to look for each time you go to evaluate a possible source. Currency: how recent is the information? Is it still relevant in today's time? For example, you wouldn't use a source from the 1920's in a psychology paper because it's a fast growing field, and that information would be outdated. Relevancy: Does the information relate to your topic? You wouldn't use an article about TV shows as a source in an essay about farm animals. They have no relation to each other. Authority: Is the author of the source credible? Would you rather trust an article written by someone with a PhD or anyone with a laptop and access to the internet? Accuracy: How do you know the information is accurate? Some of this is common sense, but sometimes you may have to dig a bit deeper. If a source starts off by stating things you know are wrong, you wouldn't trust it, but if you aren't familiar with the field, you may have to give it a bit more effort. Purpose: What is the authors reason for writing the information? Whether it be to persuade, inform, sell, or entertain, make sure it falls in line with what you're using it for, and be aware that depending on their reason for writing, it may effect the way they present the information.

Registration Prep & Meaningful Inquiry

Introduction

This week in class we discussed two very important topics related to our college careers. Monday was a whole overview on registration, and Wednesday led us to talk about asking powerful questions.

Monday - Registration

On Monday, Mrs. Martin came in to talk to us about everything we needed to know about registering for classes. This is a whole new world for us. We've never had to register for our own classes before. Up until now, we had had schedules of classes just handed to us. I don't know about everyone else, but I would've been lost entirely without the help. She showed us pretty much everything we needed to know. We went over how to search for our classes and were shown how to check the prerequisites if needed. The more we talked about it, the more all of us were getting excited to register.

Wednesday - Powerful Questions

On Wednesday, we discussed the article "The Art of Powerful Question." It was all about what makes a question powerful and how they effect people. A question is powerful when it makes people think and contemplate things deeply. Powerful questions are ones that typically leave room for discussion. They often include more of a "why" or "how" rather than a simple "yes or no." A big part of making a question powerful also involves its scope, that is, the audience it's meant to reach. You don't want to make a question too broad. You likely won't get any helpful answers if you do. Another important aspect is the assumptions placed in the question. Assumptions within a question can lead to people getting defensive rather than taking the question in its entirety and thinking about it. Part of our class exercise for the day was discussing some recent event in our lives and constructing our own powerful question in relation. These were left to be anonymous and then we were split into pairs and given two of our classmates responses. We read and discussed the two responses we were given and talked about the powerfulness of the questions posed by our classmates. Most of the ones we heard were pretty good, but I think we all had a few unconscious assumptions behind our questions that we could work on.