Goldfish Memory
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Approach:  Station ACCESS
Level: Year 8
Focus: Evaluating and comparing websites  
Resources:
List of sites, 3 articles
135Kb
 
% responses
2009 ('05)
y8

list
Questions/instructions:

“Goldfish have a memory span
of three seconds.”

1. Which websites say this is not true?
[See adjacent for list of websites.
Click on list to enlarge.]
Circle the numbers.

website
website
website
website
website
website
1
2
3
4
5
6


 
Circled:
website 1
29
tick website 2
31
website 3
17
website 4
28
website 5
23
tickwebsite 6
36
answerbag ezine ABC
website A
website B
website C
 

2. The three articles are from different websites. They have information about goldfish memory. Which website do you think could have the most reliable information? Circle the letter.

[See above for articles from websites. Click on graphics to enlarge.]

  
 
Circled:
website A
8
website B
44
tick website C
45
3. What are your reasons for choosing this site?

Trustworthiness of site in general:
[ABC News (C): tend to give accurate information,
check their sources.
Blog (A): handles a whole range of issues and
relies on ideas submitted by people somewhat haphazardly.
Ezine (B): appears likely to be somewhat selective
in what goes in, refers to expert, has list below.]
comparative
9
single site
15
Arguments about specific evidence on the three sites:
comparative
3
single site
27

     
Total score:
 4–7
13
3
15
2
23
1
31
0
19
Subgroup Analysis [Click on charts to enlarge] :
Year 8
 
Commentary:
This task required students to look at the reliability of various websites and to compare their reliability. This was very difficult for most students to do, with half of the students receiving a mark of 1 or 0.