Website Reliability Assignment
September 4th, 2008

The class will be divided into teams of two students apiece.

For each of the subjects assigned to your team, find one reliable website and one unreliable website claiming to give information on your subject, either for or against it.

Why do you consider the reliable website reliable, and the unreliable website unreliable? Give at least 3 reasons for each website.

Explain what bad things might happen if you trusted the information on the unreliable website.

What did you do to find the reliable website?

What did you do to find the unreliable website?

Put together a presentation for the class on your findings for both subjects. Try to make it interesting (informative, lively, jokes, song & dance, pictures, etc.)

Include an explanation of what your subjects are, and the controversy (if any) around them. After all, we won't know as much about it as you.

Include answers to all the questions above, as well as the URLs (web addresses) for your example websites, both good and bad.

Extra points for really, really bad unreliable websites. Bad enough that they're funny. Double extra points for good websites that are clear and informative, that you don't have to be an egghead with a PhD to understand them and to know that the information is reliable.

Note that I'm not looking for a "right" or "wrong" opinion on each subject, just your ability to determine whether the websites you cite are reliable information sources or not.

Team 1: A. The health benefits (or lack thereof) of blackstrap molasses.
B: The continents on the Earth were all part of one big land mass once, and have drifted apart.

Team 2: A. Can poor vision be corrected without using glasses or surgery (e.g. lasik surgery)? Do glasses make your vision get worse by making your eyes weaker?
B. Some schoolkids in England are capable of bending spoons and performing other feats through mind power alone.

Team 3: A. Has planet Earth been visited by space aliens from other worlds?
B. How can you tell if you have sprained your ankle? What is the proper treatment? When should you seek medical attention?

Team 4: A. Great mounds across the central United States were built by a lost race that was killed off by the later American Indians.
B. Growth hormones used on cattle result in high doses of hormones to the people who eat it.

Team 5: A. The lines in the Nazca Plains of South America were made to be seen from the air, indicating that someone had the ability to fly in prehistoric times.
B. How can you tell if you are diabetic? How should you treat a diabetic who appears to be collapsing?

Team 6: A. An ancient culture carved a giant face into the surface of Mars in an area called Cydonia.
B. Stray pets are captured and sold for use in animal research.

Team 7: A. The United States never sent astronauts to the Moon. It was all faked using Hollywood technology.
B. How can you tell if you are a hemophiliac? What should you do to care for yourself?

Team 8: A. You can lose 10 pounds of excess weight in about two weeks on a grapefruit and egg diet.
B. The government has a secret airplane called Aurora that replaces the SR-71 as a high speed reconnaissance aircraft.