First, students need to have proficient research skills. These skills include being able to navigate different databases, knowing what to search for, and knowing where to search. Having these skills will help students to gather reliable sources and will make finding these sources much easier.

Next, students can develop strong competencies regarding information and media literacy when they are good at analytical reasoning. Analytical reasoning is the ability to analyze a source and its information, know whether it is credible, and the ability to determine bias within the source. When finding a source, whether it be for a paper, project, picture, etc., it is important that it comes from a reliable source. Students need to learn how to determine this so they can be information and media literacy competent.

Lastly, students need to have proper digital literacy skills. This means being able to use different digital tools. This includes being able to navigate different media platforms, including blogs, social media, articles, videos, etc. Because our world and schools are very technological, it is important for our students to stay up to date with their technology skills. This means being digital literate. When students can navigate various platforms and have knowledge when it comes to different digital tools, they are able to succeed in our advancing world.

Many people believe that the Earth is flat. In fact, there are entire communities and groups that promote this idea. This is very prevalent on social media and other online platforms. To contradict this theory, there are many ways to prove that the Earth is round. First, by simply looking at the space satellites, you can see the Earth's curvature. The lunar eclipse is another way to prove this. The only object that will cast a round shadow no matter what time of day or year it is, is a sphere. Therefore, the Earth is not flat, and is in fact round.

Climate change is fake??

It is a common opinion that climate change is not real or humans have no factor in it. While many people believe in this, there is not any proof to back it up. This would be considered a conspiracy theory. There is quite a bit of evidence to back up the validity of climate change, however. First of all, it is easily seen that the temperatures over the years are increasing, including the ocean and earth surface temperature, meaning that the earth is warming. The warming of Earth is correlated to human activities, contrary to some beliefs. This human activity includes burning fossil fuels and carbon dioxide production.

I remember there was a trend on social media a few years back where many people were coming out and saying that they believe the Earth is flat. This sparked a lot of conversation and even agreeance. I think that students are susceptible to agree or believe this theory/myth because of social media influence. It is very easy to believe what you see on social media even though there is no evidence to back it up. This is most prevalent in young minds. So what can we do to avoid our students believing what they see on social media? information and literacy training! In classrooms, we should teach to not believe what you see online. We should teach our students to do there own research before taking someone else's word for it. They can do this through library data bases and other scholarly sources.

The climate change conspiracy theory:

The debate of the validity of climate change has been fought for many years. Climate change is also discussed and present on social media, along with flat earth arguments. Because it is a present conversation, students can find themselves siding with those who don't believe in climate change. The conspiracy theory also falls under some political parties. If a students family belongs to a certain party, it could influence their thinking on the subject. Again, I think it is important for the student to do their own research through non biased, factual, and reliable sources. If we teach our students how to navigate different databases, tech them analytical reasoning skills, and research skills, they can see for themselves the truth.

Proof of global warming sources:

https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/evidence/

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/what-evidence-exists-earth-warming-and-humans-are-main-cause#:~:text=Mountain%20glaciers%20are%20melting%20worldwide,is%20rising%20(learn%20more).