Lesson 3

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “Corn as an Industrial Feedstock,” National Corn Growers Association, National Corn Growers Association, May 2020
  • “Industrial Corn Farming Is Ruining Our Health and Polluting Our Watersheds,” Donald Scavia, The Conversation, April 6, 2015
  • “Top Five Reasons Why Eating Corn Doesn’t Make Any Sense,” Sapiens Paleo Kitchen, Sapiens Paleo Kitchen, 2019

Materials

Tools

• Potential Sources Tool

• Application Unit: Research Frame Tool

Reference Guides

• Assessing Sources Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Application Unit: Section 2 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Potential Sources Tool

• Application Unit: Research Frame Tool

• Application Unit: Section 2 Question Set

Activity 1: Discuss

We will share and discuss our assessment of sources we completed for homework.

Move into groups based on the source you chose to assess for homework and share your assessment and notes on your completed Potential Sources Tool with one another. Help each other work through questions or points of confusion or note questions that need to be posed to the class.

Share your observations and discuss any lingering questions with the class.

The assessment of a source’s usefulness is fundamental to the selection of sources for the research:

• to reflect on and evaluate the source of the information

• to purge sources (eliminating the least credible and relevant)

• to identify the most important sources to analyze more deeply by closely reading them

Activity 2: Read – Write – Discuss

We will expand our understanding of bias and the importance of a balanced set of sources.

Bias is a tendency, inclination, or prejudice to agree or disagree with a perspective, opinion, idea, subject, or topic.

• If someone has a bias toward something, then they tend to agree with or support it and will be more likely to present that topic or idea in a positive light.

• If someone has a bias against something, then they tend to disagree with and not support it and will be more likely to present that topic or idea in a negative light.

Bias and perspective are related but different from one another:

• Perspective is the physical or socio-cultural point from which they view something.

• Bias is when their perspective influences their judgment of something in a very positive or negative way.

With the class, discuss the following questions:

• Why is it important to assess potential sources for bias?

• Why is it important to use multiple sources in your research?

Activity 3: Read – Write – Discuss

We will apply our understanding of bias and how to assess it to some common texts related to the global Food production unit.

Step 1

Working with a partner, complete the following task and be ready to share your ideas:

1. Access your assigned text online by searching for its title:

• "Top Five Reasons Why Eating Corn Doesn’t Make Any Sense" by Sapiens Paleo Kitchen

• "Industrial Corn Farming Is Ruining Our Health and Polluting Our Watersheds" by Donald Scavia

• "Corn as an Industrial Feedstock" by the National Corn Growers Association

2. Read the text as if you were searching for a source to help you answer the following research question: How do we feed a growing world?

Step 2

3. Complete a Potential Sources Tool for your assigned text, with particular focus on credibility and bias. Use the following resources to assist with that assessment:

• the Analyzing a Text for Bias section of the Assessing Sources Reference Guide

• the websites of the text and the publication

• the author’s website

• a media bias fact check website

• media bias charts (several available online)

• additional searches about the author and publications

In addition to taking notes on the date, publisher, author, and type, be sure to take notes on the text’s accessibility and interest, relevance and richness, and credibility and accuracy. Select high, medium, or low to rate the text’s credibility and accuracy.

Be prepared to support your analysis with textual evidence.

Step 3

Find another pair who focused on the same text as you and your partner. Share and discuss each of your assessments of this source. If there are places of disagreement or difference, work together to untangle the differences and come to some agreement. Be sure to make any additions or revisions to your copy of the Potential Sources Tool for your reference later.

Step 4

Participate in a discussion about the following questions:

1. What did you learn about "Top Five Reasons Why Eating Corn Doesn’t Make Any Sense" by Sapiens Paleo Kitchen from your assessment?

2. What did you learn about "Industrial Corn Farming Is Ruining Our Health and Polluting Our Watersheds" by Donald Scavia from your assessment?

3. What did you learn about "Corn as an Industrial Feedstock" by the National Corn Growers Association from your assessment?

4. Given what you have now heard from the other groups and your own work, which of these sources posed the greatest concern in terms of bias (particularly if used alone) and why?

5. Which of these sources posed the least concern in terms of bias and why?

6. How would you evaluate these texts as a set of sources in terms of their usability and balance? Would you use all of them in a researched product? If so, how might you introduce your audience to each article?

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

We will generate ideas about where and how to search for sources and begin using keywords to search for sources.

Step 1

Depending on your team’s topic, you might accrue a more extensive list of key and supporting sources, including a variety of media or their own primary research. At minimum, and especially for the next section of the unit, all teams will need to have a minimum of four key and substantial sources that meet the standards for credibility, relevance, richness, and balance.

Step 2

Participate in a class discussion about the following questions:

1. What sorts of sources should we look for, depending on what information we want? Where are the best places to find those sources?

2. Which locations would you consider reliable to look for specialized information?

3. If we don’t know where to look for specialized information, whom can we ask for guidance?

4. How can we generate and use keywords effectively to find relevant and credible sources?

Successful online searches can only be performed by using appropriate words and phrases. The search engine will provide a list of sites based on a request. So the more focused, clear, precise, and content- or domain-specific the requests are, the more relevant the search results will be.

Step 3

Move to your research teams and retrieve your Research Frame Tool. Work together to discuss where you can look for sources to answer your inquiry questions for each inquiry path.

Then work together to develop keywords for each inquiry path. Pay special attention to any domain-specific terms that are relevant to your research. Write these keywords in on the Research Frame Tool for each inquiry path.

Step 4

Begin searching for sources for one inquiry path on your Research Frame Tool. Try using different keywords or combinations of keywords to conduct the searches in some of the places you brainstormed. Write down helpful keywords on your Research Frame Tool. Work together to revise your keywords as needed to improve your search results.

Collect at least three new sources beyond those you might have already found. They might be books, published articles, websites, images, interviews, expert testimonies, or other sources.

As you find potential sources, assess their usefulness by completing a Potential Sources Tool for each.

We will continue searching for sources for homework and in the next lesson.

Activity 5: Read – Write

For homework, we will continue using keywords to search for texts that help us answer our inquiry paths on our Research Frame Tools.

Assign each member of your research team a different inquiry path on your Research Frame Tool.

Individually, use the inquiry path’s inquiry question and keywords to start searching in some of the places you brainstormed. Revise your keywords and inquiry questions as needed to improve your search results.

As you find potential sources, use Potential Sources Tools for each to assess their usefulness. Consult the Assessing Sources Reference Guide while you assess each source.

Record new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal.