The quality of the information you find on the Web varies tremendously so it is always a good idea to check the information against another source. As with all information resources, whether in print or on the Internet, you evaluate its quality based on the following criteria:
- Currency (Is the information up to date?)
- Relevance (Does the information meet your needs?)
- Authority (What are the qualifications of the author?)
- Accuracy (Is it free from mistakes and errors?)
- Purpose (Who is the audience? Why does this content exist?
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— Article and link (1pt): Enter the title, source, and date of the article and create a link to it. Articles should be from any popular media source (newspaper, magazine, podcast, blog, etc.) that others can access without hitting a paywall. Any relevant story is acceptable, but challenge yourself to find stories that are current (~within the last 3 months) and that haven’t yet been posted by your peers, whenever possible.
— Summary (2pts): Write a short summary of the story. Just a few (5-8) sentences is sufficient; keep it short and to the point. Eliminate redundancies or repetitive text to keep your paragraph clear and concise.
— Connections (2pts): Explain briefly how this connects to what we’ve covered in class (past, present or future).
— Critical analysis (2pts): Explain what you found interesting about this story, and what (if anything) you learned. Comment on whether you think the story was scientifically accurate or not. If you noticed any factual inaccuracies or aspects of the story that might inadvertently confuse or misinform readers, identify those and provide a more accurate explanation. Also comment on how this was written. Do you think it did a good job of communicating science to the public? Why or why not?
— Question: Write a question about microbiology that you had because of reading this story.