A Reliable Website?: A - Block by Patrick Mullarkey

Directions

mullarkeypatrick1 — 2021-03-04 00:49:30 UTC

Directions!

mullarkeypatrick1 — 2021-03-04 00:49:49 UTC

After determining if the websites were reliable or not and filling out the worksheet, please post the following on this padlet:
1. Post the title of the website; link; evidence and reasoning as to how you know it is reliable or not
2. Answer one of the following questions - What did you learn from this activity? What is the significance of this activity? Why did we take the time to do this activity?

Example

mullarkeypatrick1 — 2021-03-04 00:51:17 UTC

"Help Save The Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus From Extinction"
https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
I know this website is not reliable because...

Lillian.W

lianxiwei — 2021-03-04 09:02:20 UTC

"Ban DHMO: Dihydrogen Monoxide!"

http://bandhmo.org/
This website is unreliable because several basic components of a credible website are missing. This website article doesn't have a visible author or date, and it isn't published on a credible news source (Example: CIA). There are multiple grammar and spelling mistakes, and the website page looks out-of-date. The tone is dramatically negative and opinionated, only sharing one perspective of the topic and refusing to bring out the other. The article also has false sponsor claims and inappropriate citations (see below), along with statements that lack statistical support.

Significance:
- identify sources as either credible or incredible.
- differentiate the characteristics of a reliable website and an unreliable website.
- Makes researching less of a burden online -> high-quality paper with credible sources.

Corrine

corrinemak2016 — 2021-03-04 09:12:14 UTC

"Atlantic City is Offering Bidders the chance to Blow up a Former Trump Casino"
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/947540932/atlantic-city-is-offering-bidders-the-chance-to-blow-up-a-former-trump-casino

Reliable website:
-Clear author and date (Colin Dwyer, from Dec 17, 2020)
-Tone neutral
-no apparent sponsors--less bias
-properly cited authority figures as sources to support claim eg the mayor stating what he wants to get from this demolition(see pic below)
-multiple sources highlighted in blue--hyperlinks encased that can verify info in this article (again, see pic below)
-article from NPR--trusted news website and broadcasting service in the US

Purpose
-identify articles that are reliable/unreliable even though they might seem the opposite
-makes our lives easier when finding good sources for our research papers
-good skill to have when doing any type of research--that way not going to be fooled by unreliable sources

2021-03-04 09:25:52 UTC

“Feline Reactions to Bearded Men”
https://www.improbable.com/archives/classical/cat/cat.html

Why it might be reliable:
-Multiple authors from different universities
-Actual photograph of the experiment conducted
-Professional Tone
-No bias
-Experiment information and results were very detailed and clear

Why it might be unreliable:
-No date
-URL is a .com
-Refers to fictional works such as Dr. Seuss’s “Cat in the Hat” as professional studies
-Fake Bibliography
-Experiment variables are poorly controlled
-Lacks logic between the experiment results and conclusion

Conclusion: This article is not reliable. Although it has actual authors, experiment details, and a professional tone, the experiment was poorly conducted and illogically explained. Therefore, the final results the site presents should not be used.

Lucas Padlet

lucas402 — 2021-03-04 09:40:56 UTC

*the other anonymous post identical to this one was because I didnt log in

“Feline Reactions to Bearded Men”
https://www.improbable.com/archives/classical/cat/cat.html

Why it might be reliable:
-Multiple authors from different universities
-Actual photograph of the experiment conducted
-Professional Tone
-No bias
-Experiment information and results were very detailed and clear

Why it might be unreliable:
-No date
-URL is a .com
-Refers to fictional works such as Dr. Seuss’s “Cat in the Hat” as professional studies
-Fake Bibliography
-Experiment variables are poorly controlled
-Lacks logic between the experiment results and conclusion

Conclusion: This article is not reliable. Although it has actual authors, experiment details, and a professional tone, the experiment was poorly conducted and illogically explained. Therefore, the final results the site presents should not be used.

The Credibility of “Feline Reactions to Bearded Men” Research (and the Significance of This Assignment*) By Yiwei Jiang

yiweijiang624071 — 2021-03-04 10:44:57 UTC

The Credibility of Feline Reactions to Bearded Men
The article/ research paper Feline Reactions to Bearded Men (link attached below) talks about the reactions of cats while looking at pictures of bearded men.
Overall, this article is unreliable, as I will prove below.
First, even if the results of the experiment may be correct and accurate, the tests are not necessarily causing the results, i.e. the reactions of the cats are very diverse and vary a lot, and most of the percentages are just slightly higher or lower than the other ones.
Next, the experiment cites fictional works as their sources, such as Cat in the Hat, by Doctor Seuss.
Additionally, there were only 5 pictures for the cats to look at, and that produces inaccurate results. The paper also talks about a part where the lab assistants hold the cat in order for it not to move, however, a sentence later, the article says that the lab assistant was anesthetized, which would be ridiculous. This shows that the people who did the experiments aren’t professional.
Finally, there is no sponsor, and the article is very not up to date, because the sources are all very ancient and in the end of the article, it says that the follow-up experiment was held in 1999.
In conclusion, the article was not up to date, didnt include a sponsor. and didn’t use strong evidence and therefore is an unreliable source.
Q.E.D. :)

*Significance of the Assignment:
This assignment was a practice for us to differentiate between unreliable sources like the aforementioned article about house pets and facial hair, and credible sources like New York Times and National Geographic. This skill will be useful in our future lives and the research paper that we are going to write in a few weeks.

Christine Yu

iamchristineyu — 2021-03-04 10:58:27 UTC

"Never Forget the Lies About Air Defense Failures on 9/11"

https://911truth.org/never-forget-911-air-defense-failures/

Why it might be reliable:
-URL ends in ".org"
-Provides information about author
-Correct grammar/spelling
-Professional tone
-Provides actual photograph
-Accurate dates of past events
-Provides way of contact

Why we take time to do this:
We can learn how to identify reliable sources, and choose sources in a smarter and quicker way. We can save a lot of time researching, and it will also help us in the future.

Jason Y.

2021-03-04 11:02:03 UTC

"In Vitro Meat"
http://bitelabs.org/process_details

Unreliable site
-It is an advertisement for a product
-It may be presenting facts, but is only focusing on the good side of sausages and not meant to be cited as a source
-It presents information in a weird and vague way----instead of saying "sausages", it tries to make the product sound good by calling it "In-Vitro Meat."
-No clear author and sources, not even images from the process of making the sausages
-Nutritional information is not presented ("coming soon"), meaning that the product's healthiness is not to be shown to us

We took time on this activity, since it helps greatly with research. Instead of just learning about CARS, we need to actually be able to use it in application. Thus, we can identify, when doing research, whether something is reliable/biased or not. It is an important step in our research, and could be used in future research for papers in English or other subjects/activities.

Ethan Wang

ethanw88899 — 2021-03-04 11:30:01 UTC

"Tucker Carlson: Lockdowns are killing our children, and everyone knows it -- including teachers' unions"

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-coronavirus-lockdowns-killing-children-teachers-unions
I know this website is unreliable because FOX News is known for being America's biggest right-wing news source. This gives the source a certain amount of bias. Also, the source portrays its tone as pessimistic. The site's logic does not work out all that much, as lockdowns are only present to PREVENT children from getting killed by the coronavirus, not to CAUSE children to get killed. Lockdowns are present because it helps to stop the spread of disease. FaceTime and chatting apps could also resolve mental health diseases, where friends could still chat with each other. Therefore, this site is deemed unreliable.

The significance of this activity is to educate us students on how to look out for unreliable sources that could cause great harm to our research papers when we are working on them. Therefore, we should always analyze the sources we find before actually citing them in our texts.

Cheese is one of the Most Neuroprotective Foods

2021-03-04 11:36:34 UTC

Mimi Xue

URL:https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/02/20/cheese-is-one-of-the-most-neuroprotective-foods.aspx
This article is unreliable because when I first clicked into this link, I found that I need to subscribe in order to have access to this article. This shows that the owner of this website is trying to gain followers or people’s personal information from this article. The url ends in .com, and all of the article published on this website seemed to be written by one person, so this website might just be a website opened by one person, instead of an organization. Website owned by only one person may contain bias information because no one would disagree with his opinions before he upload these articles onto the internet. By only reading the title, i can also tell that this source is unreliable. Using my common sense, I know that cheese cannot be neuroprotective and this is just an opinion-based statement.

From this activity, I learned that we need to find reliable sources only for our research paper, or else, false statements could easily appear in our research paper. We need to find websites with url ending in .org or .edu. We need to check for the article’s author. This way, we can keep our research paper as accurate as possible

Rachael Liu

Rachael_EMTY — 2021-03-04 11:50:14 UTC

"COVID-19 hits culture sector even harder than expected, warns UNESCO"
https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-hits-culture-sector-even-harder-expected-warns-unesco

The article from UNESCO discussed about impact of Covid-19 pandemic on culture, which has caused a much more severe consequence as expected. It is considered as a reliable source because:
- Recent date of publication-- the article was written and posted on December 12th, 2020.
- Tone is professional. It has showed no bias and kept neutral.
- Reliable domain and sponsor. UNESCO is one of the official entities of the United Nation, which is an authority in all kinds of worldwide and developing issues.
- Statistical data used and cited at the end of the article.

What is the purpose of doing this activity?
As we are doing desk research on our topics for the research paper, which should remain a professional tone and keep neutral, we should have learned how to distinguish unreliable websites and biased information. This activity help us to practice how to distinguish if a website is reliable or not, and become very careful when looking for information online and interpreting the topic.

"Feline Reactions to Bearded Men"

CanaCai — 2021-03-04 12:20:47 UTC

https://www.improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
"Feline Reactions to Bearded Men" is an article that describes an experiment on the reactions of feline animals to bearded men. It is a reliable source because it includes the majority of the criteria of CARS--credibility, accuracy, reasonableness, and having support. For credibility, this article is created by various authors/ universities including Catherine Maloney and Fairfield University. Its purpose is to inform the audience of experimental discoveries, not to promote an idea or product, so therefore is not bias. For accuracy, this passage has no spelling/grammar mistakes. Though many may consider the date written (the late 20th century) as a flaw of the article for being not up to date, it is not. Experiments, unlike medical advancements, do not need to be recent for it to be credible because successful experiments results can be still be applied today. For reasonableness, this article has a formal tone using professional vocabulary. It has no bias for the article is simply stating the results concluded through observation which is supported by evidence. One of the data collected from the experiment:

Pritchett:    

          7% attacked photograph.

          1% fled.

          91% had no visible response.

91%of the cats that approached the phone of Pritchett had no visible response, which leads to the conclusion that cats are indifferent to men with shorter beards. All the observations leads to the final result, proving how the article is reasonable. For support, the article has a bibliography for source citations. Furthermore, the MIT Museum Collection contributes by allowing them to use their photographs as part of this research report.
To wrap up the main points, this source is credible because it is not biased and the experimental conclusions are supported by evidence, and fulfills most of the CARS standards. Even though it was created decades ago, the information is still accurate today.

I learned how to identify whether an article fulfills all the criteria of CARS. This activity helps us in our research paper with us knowing how to distinguished biased information with credible sources. Thus, it would improve the credibility of our own research papers.

"Atlantic City Is Offering Bidders The Chance To Blow Up A Former Trump Casino"

joytang — 2021-03-04 12:59:10 UTC

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/947540932/atlantic-city-is-offering-bidders-the-chance-to-blow-up-a-former-trump-casino

This website is reliable because it is written by a professional reporter and published by a non-profit media organization. It is both publicly and privately sponsored. The information being reported is recent and unbiased, and all claims were backed up with evidence with links to the source.

I learned, from this activity, that a source's credibility should be judged from many aspects, as a source proficient in one area may lack reliability when you regard other aspects of it. For example, "In Vitro Meat" may be a ".org" site but lacks a clear author and sponsor. I now know how to assess a website's reliability by judging its many aspects.

Erica Li

2021-03-04 13:12:20 UTC

“Atlantic City Is Offering Bidders The Chance To Blow Up A Former Trump Casino”

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/947540932/atlantic-city-is-offering-bidders-the-chance-to-blow-up-a-former-trump-casino

Reliable site
The article has clear author and date, it is from .org, and that it does not have a possible sponsorship. All the sources of the article are cited clearly.

What is the significant of this activity?
- this activity helps us identify the source that is reliable. This helps us know what source to use while writing our essays or research papers, and also tells us what to believe in more when we do readings online. By knowing how to identify the reliable and unreliable sources, people can also be more efficient while researching a specific topic.

"Japan's Well-Fed Zombie Corporations"

lnimerritt — 2021-03-04 13:21:51 UTC

https://www.infowars.com/posts/japans-well-fed-zombie-corporations/
This website is reliable because it cited sources used within the article and those sources are all proven reliable. In addition, there is no biased opinion because it's an article sticking to just the facts and statistics. Furthermore, the website is up-to-date; updated no longer than a week ago. The website is also commonly known for stating out the bold reality.
We took time to do this activity to help us understand the importance of a reliable article and website and not use the ones that aren't reliable in our research papers now, or later in our lives. Also to help us identify which sites are credible enough for us to use to not have false research papers.

Feline Reactions to Bearded Men (Seazen Lu)

2021-03-04 13:37:11 UTC

https://www.improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
this article is unreliable. The educational backgrounds of the experiment's contributors' boast Ivy League and prestigious universities, which could very well be made up. No charts were displayed that could give a visual demonstration of the cat's reaction towards bearded men. The proceedings of the experiment were described with dexterity, but bordered somewhere on ridiculous. For example, one line states that "214 cats participated in the study... fifteen cats gave birth while viewing the photographs." Since someone else has already slammed the bibliography, i may as well not include it.

the significance of this activity is not simply to guide students on figuring out which source is a reliable one. this activity also serves to encourage students to analyze and scrutinize sources carefully.

"Ban DHMO: DIhydrogen Monoxide!"

angiechanyy — 2021-03-04 14:12:19 UTC

http://descy.50megs.com/descy/webcred/webcred/dhmo.html
This website is unreliable.
Although it did provide further readings that are credible, but the website uses wordings that are radically pessimistic and biased. Despite it provided reliable sources to refer to, they are not properly cited. Additionally, the URL of this website is not presented with credibility. Furthermore, information provided by the website is vague and are not supported by statistics. It is shown more as an advertisement to ban DHMO than as an credible, informational text.

In this activity, I learned how to identify reliable and unreliable resources. I will be able to apply appropriate sources to my research paper, and thus improving the quality of my assignment.

Katherine

2021-03-04 14:55:15 UTC

“Ban DHMO: Dihydrogen Monoxide!“
http://descy.50megs.com/descy/webcred/webcred/dhmo.html
This website is unreliable because of multiple reasons. First, it has no author, the url is “.com”, and the clear purpose of the article is to persuade others to support the banning of DHMO; these reasons show that the website is not credible. Secondly, the article is also not reasonable: the tone of the author is unprofessional, the author is biased in multiple ways, and the reasons he gave we’re not logical. For example, the author claims that “DHMO contamination is even found in most cells in the human body”, which is a statement that was never proven by science. Thirdly, the website provides no contact information, and has partnership with people who also support the banning of DHMO, and who also might be biased. However, the website also contains no grammar/spelling mistakes, and is updated twice a year, which means that it’s accurate; it also included a works cited, which shows that it got “support”; but overall, the evidence of unreliability outweighs the ones of reliability, so the article is considered unreliable.

Significance
The significance of this activity is to help us learn that not all sources on the internet is reliable, and not every article can be used as evidence for our writing. We need to determine its reliability before referencing it, or else we might get the wrong or biased information. Another purpose is to teach us how to determine if a website is reliable or not, so that we can research properly when writing our papers.

Done by Ashlyn

joytang — 2021-03-05 02:38:23 UTC

"Ban DHMO: Dihydrogen Monoxide"
This website is unreliable because of its absence of a credible author, misinformation, and false evidence. First of all, the article does not have a credible author. It lacks an academic tone and provides biased information that is illogical which emphasizes how unprofessional and untrustworthy the author is. The essay also contains multiple grammar mistakes and non-existent evidence. Even though it mentions multiple websites, the majority of them are not found or unrelated to the topic.

Significance:
By doing this activity, students can now efficiently identify unreliable websites and avoid using biased or false information on their reports. It highlights the importance of why students need to check their sources in order to write an accurate paper.