California's Velcro Crop Under Challenge

Introduction: The internet is a great learning tool that can be used effectively in the classroom. It is full of facts but also fiction. Before using the internet in the classroom, it is important that all students learn how to navigate with caution and knowledge.

The Activity: 

1. You cannot always believe what you see! Explain to students that when searching the internet, they must constantly question the validity of anything they find. Although a website's name or appearance may seem official, it does not mean that it is. Have a discussion explaining how easy it is for anyone to post anything on the internet. 
2. Have student's visit the site http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html
3. Ask the students to answer the following 3 questions

• What does the graph tell us about the diminish of California's Velcro Crop?
• Who is the author of this website? What do you know about him?
• Where was this data collected from? Are there any referrals to other sources/links that were cited?

Purpose/Goal:
The purpose of this activity is to teach student's how to evaluate the validity of website's themselves by answering questions about a particular website. This activity will show student's that there are several ways to further investigate a website and the information that is found on it. This activity should be carried out by having the student's first work individually and then later share their findings in a group discussion.