Thanks to all who responded, I received many great responses and quite
a few requests for a hit. I am including a list of the web site links
below. Some are links to individual sites and some are links to a
compilation of sites. Thanks again!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ (Save the Tree Octopus)
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus is sufficiently goofy, I've found
(that water/dihydrogen monoxide hoax site is over my head, I think). I
haven't looked at it too in-depth to know if there is inappropriate
material on it. It's a well-done site, so it looks valid except for the
octopus in the pine tree, of course.
The bonus is that if you type in octopus in Google, the PNTO is pretty
much the first hit you get. A travel agent is second or third, and a
literary magazine is like 5th. So, of the first 10 hits for octopus, at
least 5 are useless if trying to do research. It helps "sell" the fee-
based databases a little bit.
This one seems okay for the age group in question:
Mankato, MN Home Page
http://descy.50megs.com/mankato/mankato.html
As for the rest, well you might have to sort through them a bit, since
I
haven't personally viewed them all. Most of the sites below are
collections of fake sites.
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/C49/
http://hostings.diplomacy.edu/baldi/malta2001/polpro/political%
20protest
-77.htm
http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/6058
http://www.proscenia.net/pronews/discussion/110203_fakewebsites.html
http://www.philb.com/fakesites.htm
www.thedogisland.com
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
This website encourages visitors to help save the "Endangered Pacific
Northwest Tree Octopus" It's colorful, and hopefully, obviously a hoax
http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/
This site offers to sell visitors "dehydrated water". It might take
you a
minute or two to explain what dehydrated means, but other than that,
it
should be at their level
Another site to look for is "Lake Michigan Whale Watching," which is
currently down, but will hopefully reappear soon.
http://www.idiotica.com/cranium/encyclopedia/
If you go to my library skills blog at:
csslibraryskills.blogspot.com
I have a 2 part lesson on web site evaluation that I've used with my
5th and 6th graders. It's called "When in doubt...doubt." I think all
the websites are okay. There are good ones and hoax ones. I think
you'll be able to tell them apart. The kids really liked this. Feel
free to use the blog if you'd like.
Have a look at the lists at
http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/bogusweb/
http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/EvalSoft/
just did this with my fifth graders. Type in "facts about beluga
whales" into google and its the first site.
www.idiotica.com/encyclopedia/content/Beluga.htm - 6k -
I found the site in the LM Net archives but I had to look at a lot of
sites that didn't work for 5th grade to find this one. We talked about
what information comes from, how it might be dated (ex: a 1999 book
about Mars wouldn't include the Mars rover information).
Then looked at the NASA website together using a worksheet I created.
I emphasized they had to think about the source and look for clues:
(URL address for .com/.org/.edu) was it dated,updated (a lot of them
didn't realize lots of websites have old information), were there ads,
was the organization identified, was the writer identified, could you
contact him. etc.
Then I sent them to the computers to google the beluga website. The
last clue asked them to skim the content and compare it with what they
might know about whales and what makes sense. They were asked to reach
a conclusion about whether they should trust the site and identify the
clues they used to make their decision. Then we went over the site
together.
I had them leave their paper behind so I was able to get an idea for
whether they were getting the concept. Some did and some didn't but at
least all of them were exposed to the ideas. Hope this helps. I'll be
happy to send the "clues" sheet if you'd like. Its at my work computer
or I'd attach it now. Good luck.
Have you used www.idiotica.com/cranium/encyclopedia
It is the Facts About Series
Silly reports that are easy to have kids check facts especially the
Albert
Einstein and Mars. They also like the World chocolate supply nearly
exhausted article. I use it all the time with my students 5th - 8th.
We
also use the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
http://www.umbachconsulting.com/miscellany/velcro.html
http://descy.50megs.com/mankato/mankato.html
http://www.hcs.k12.sc.us/high/nmbh/misinformation/
Item 5 was made by me simply to prove that even "dumb" answers can be
placed on the web.
From this list:
http://www.shsu.edu/~lis_mah/documents/TCEA/hoaxtable.html
I suggest the Burmese Mountain Dog or the Jackalope.
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