Reflection

Reflection from All Researchers

This is a collection of comments from 4th grade students in Houses E, F, M, N, and Y after two sessions of researching and recording our findings.

• First was difficult - no websites we found seemed to be focusing on the topic.

• We found that it matters if we used the right keywords.

• We wanted to verify the information so we tried to find a lot of different sites. If the majority of sources say the same thing, then you will stick with the information.

• The kind of facts that are hard to prove: When there is the word "only" attached to the fact — you'll have to then prove that ALL OTHERS are not also. For example, Theodore Roosevelt is the only U.S. President with one blind eye is not easy to prove. We could find that he had a blind eye but couldn't find out if no other presidents had blind eyes.

• We don't know whether to believe in a source because we don't know who the person who made the website is and whether he or she is an expert.

• It was hard to decide whether the information is true or not.

• For our fact about diet, it was hard to find a resource — because there are so many women's sites that are selling their products and dieting ideas you don't know if they are telling the truth.

• We decided to start with Encyclopedia Britannica because it we think this is a more reliable source than google or a random website.

• We got a fact that we couldn't find any web source for because no one seems to care about this fact.

• I don't like looking things up and putting them on the wiki at the same time because you have to go back and forth from one page to another and it got annoying.

• We didn't like to research because it took so much time and it was hard.

• I don't like looking up my fact because the fact is difficult to verify.

• We found the fact immediately. We know the site is reliable because the people who put up the site has a lot of expertise and experiences.

• We got our information at nytimes.com so we KNOW it's reliable.

• The reason we thought our source is reliable is because the author has a degree in the field.

• Association site seems more believeable than just a .com site!

• Why do we trust the site: Personal experience that matches what you read. The site has a lot other facts that are true. The also offer scientific explanation.

• We looked in many different sites. We found the fact on Wikipedia. We trust it because it is not entirely trustworthy but many times they are. We found another website that also says the same thing. We also got to see the map.