An Essential Real-World Skill: ISL Year 7s become experts in verifying sources through their investigations in humanities

Young learners are often the most intrinsically motivated when they recognise the real-world relevance of their learning. In the International School of Lausanne’s Year 7 International Baccalaureate humanities curriculum, which is also part of our Dual Language programme, the students have been acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to verify sources and, if needed, to stop the dangerous spread of disinformation and misinformation. ISL has been fortunate to work with a specialist in media misinformation to help create course content, and through the students’ individual research investigations into topics including climate change and ancient investigations, the Year 7s hone their critical thinking skills and become rigorous fact-checkers. Their most recent investigation on the factors that influence the development of a civilisation culminated in a museum exhibition, delivered in both English and French, to the ISL Year 6 students…

When the International School of Lausanne hosted the annual Swiss Group of International Schools (SGIS) Conference in March of this year, the chair of the SGIS, Lucy Gowdie (Head of the Inter-Community School, Zurich), made a powerful opening speech in which she referred to the recent World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024.

This report found that “Misinformation and disinformation is the most severe short-term risk the world faces.” In her speech, Ms Gowdie stressed the need for the educators in the room, representing fifty-four international schools from throughout Switzerland, to ensure that our students are equipped with the critical thinking skills and knowledge to tackle this grave threat to our “trust ecosystem”, a message likewise underscored by the International School of Lausanne’s director, Frazer Cairns, in his opening speech.

“We need to develop our students’ creativity, empathy, and innovation; to ensure that they are prepared fundamentally to think about the lives of others,” Mr Cairns concluded his message on the duty of educators in the rapidly changing world of today.

At the International School of Lausanne, this is a responsibility that we take very seriously: far before our students begin the International Baccalaureate’s Theory of Knowledge course in the Diploma Programme, learners as young as age seven (Year 3) are being introduced to concepts involving source checking, with the ISL Primary curriculum including the following teaching in this area:

• Approaches to Learning (ATLs): These are identified within every unit taught in the primary. There are specific relevant connections within the Research Skills and Thinking Skills.
• Social Studies Curriculum: Y3 curricular competency: “EVIDENCE: Ask questions, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the content and features of different types of sources” or Y6 “Ask questions, corroborate inferences, and draw conclusions about the content and origins of a variety of sources, including mass media”. (Note – there are specific lessons focusing on reliability of sources during the Exhibition unit).
• Year 5 Science: “Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information Obtain and combine information from books and other reliable media to explain phenomena.
• Year 4 Unit of Inquiry: How We Organize Ourselves, Central Idea: People can create or manipulate messages to target specific audiences. Line of inquiry: How children are influenced by persuasive messaging techniques.
• PSHE: Digital Citizenship unit.

In the International School of Lausanne secondary school, this primary learning is first built upon in our new IB Middle Years Programme humanities course on climate change in Year 7.

Last year, the teachers on this course had the opportunity to work with Kshipra Narain, an ISL parent, and a Media & Communications expert in the field of combatting misinformation, in arranging an interactive presentation on the topic of misinformation, and this outstanding presentation, so generously created by a media specialist for our students, has now become a fundamental part of the unit of learning and the final critical thinking unit assessment.

Media misinformation expert Kshipra Narain visit: ISL students are taught the essential skills needed to not only recognise false information, but also the requisite knowledge to stop the spread of this.

The impact this real-world learning has on the Year 7 students is clear: from the unit on “Our Changing Climate” onwards, the students are empowered with the motivation and knowledge to consistently verify the trustworthiness and accuracy of all information sources. (They also become keen critics of their teachers’ lesson slide shows, quick to spot if a source hasn’t been cited, or seems of questionable veracity!)

As each of the two subsequent units of learning in humanities involves the students undertaking an individual research investigation, this ensures that the young learners spend a substantial amount of time critically evaluating sources, thus acquiring a habit of verifying information that will be of vital importance to them in both a school and real-world context.

However, while source checking is a key part of these investigations, there is naturally much more that the students get out of the experience…

In the most recent Year 7 humanities unit on “The Rise of Civilisations”, the students choose an ancient civilisation to individually research, producing with support from their teacher, a research question that focuses on either a geographical or social factor contributing to the development of this civilisation, and “sub” questions, which enable them to focus their research more closely on different areas relating to the overarching question. As unit outcomes, the students ultimately produce research summaries written in the form of an essay, and prepare posters and historical artefact replicas to host a museum exhibit for the Year 6 students to attend.

The learning in this course also occurs in classes of both French and English, as part of the International School of Lausanne’s Dual Learning programme, meaning that “The Rise of Civilisations” exhibit occurs in two languages.

Dual Language learners: Depending on whether their humanities classes are taught in French or English, the students present their work accordingly during “The Rise of Civilisations” museum exhibit.

Prior to beginning their individual investigations, the classroom teaching and learning focuses on giving the students a secure understanding of the factors that define a civilisation, such as writing and record-keeping, education and knowledge, and arts and culture. They learn in greater depth about the agricultural revolution, which is touched on in the previous climate change unit, when the students discover that the industrial revolution was the most significant change in humankind’s way of life since the agricultural revolution.

Armed with the knowledge of key factors fundamental to defining a society as civilised, the students are then ready to choose an ancient civilisation to research, and an area of learning that connects to their own area of interest or development – for some, this relates to their future career choices, such as Irina, who felt that learning about the birth of Latin in Ancient Rome would enhance her knowledge of medical terminology; for others, this choice was cultural, such as Maksim, who believed that learning about Ancient China would give him some interesting conversational topics with his Asian friends.

And so, to find out more about the experience of being a Year 7 learner on this course, keep scrolling to click on the links to some example student investigations, to read some student reflections on the course, and to enjoy some images of “The Rise of Civilisations” museum exhibit for the Year 6s.

Example student investigations (scroll to “Step 7” to read the investigation summaries):

• How did physical geography impact the development of trade in Ancient China? (Joana, Year 7)
• How did architecture develop in Ancient Rome? (Anna, Year 7)
• How did physical geography impact the development of civilization in Ancient China? (Maksim, Year 7)
• How did the language of Latin develop in Ancient Rome? (Irina, Year 7)
  
  

In their own words…the students reflect on the course:

On being introduced to the new unit on “The Rise of Civilisations”…

When I found out that we were going to be doing a research investigation on an Ancient Civilisation, I felt happy because I really like to do investigations and they are interesting in every unit. (Masha, Year 7)

When I found out that we were going to be doing a research investigation on an Ancient Civilisation, I felt excited because I really enjoy researching things and learning about places and civilisations. For me researching is a really calming thing because I can listen to my music and zone into my own work instead of having to listen to a lot of people talking at the same time. I was also really excited to research about a civilisation because whenever I research, I feel like I have the freedom to do things the way I like doing them. That normally helps me manage my time more effectively and not have to do a lot of homework. (Anna, Year 7)

When I found out that we were going to be doing a research investigation on an Ancient Civilisation, I felt excited to learn about my chosen civilisation, but I was also stressed because I was worried that it would be really hard and that I might not be able to finish it, but when I was having a hard time finding info I was lucky to have my teacher to help me and she made it a lot easier for me to find info. (Keane, Year 7)

When I found out that we were going to be doing a research investigation on an Ancient Civilisation, I felt excited because I love learning more and investigating in a humanities class. I knew directly what I was going to research about. Ancient Rome is an amazing civilisation with many traditions and beliefs. (Irina, Year 7)

When I found out that we were going to be doing a research investigation on an Ancient Civilisation, I was really interested because I really like learning about the past. (Julius, Year 7)

On their choice of Ancient Civilisation to research…

I chose to research the civilisation of Ancient China because most of my friends are from Asia and I wanted to research their history maybe to keep up with a conversation later. (Maksim, Year 7)

I chose to research Ancient Greece, as when I visited Greece I was fascinated by the geography and amazing architecture and I wanted to dive deeper into this topic by using this task as an opportunity to expand my knowledge further on the subject. (Memo, Year 7)

I chose to research the Ancient Roman civilisation, specifically more about the Latin Language. First of all, my home language is Romanian and it developed from Latin. I also thought that it would help me because I want to be a doctor one day, and a lot of medical language comes from Latin. (Irina, Year 7)

I chose to research Ancient China because this civilization was very well known which meant there would be plenty of information to research about and I figured there would be lots of interesting physical factors and structures. I was also very intrigued on how it developed as China still exists today and since it is not Ancient China anymore, I wondered how it could have developed differently. (Joana, Year 7)

I chose to research the Ancient Roman civilization because when I first went to Rome, I was really fascinated because of all of their buildings and statues they had. I was really interested and wanted to know more about what purpose those buildings served to their civilisation. I also really wanted to know how they built those buildings and if Ancient Rome created any new or fancy types of architecture. (Anna, Year 7)

I chose to research the Ancient Romans because I have always wanted to learn about them but never got to. So when I got the chance I decided to do Ancient Rome and it turns out it was hard but very fun to learn about. (Keane, Year 7)

On some fascinating new knowledge…

I learned mostly that Ancient Armenia was also a powerhouse because they were so good at maintaining defences and having one of the best military tactics at that time.(Vlad, Year 7)

The most fascinating thing is that the Ancient Japanese gave ranks to their samurai, like “Mythic” and “Legendary”. (Julian, Year 7)

The most fascinating thing that I learnt during my research was that the colosseum was not built only to host entertainment, but also to control the people and the crowds of Rome, in order to make Rome a safer place to live in. (Anna, Year 7)

On a challenge encountered during the research process…

During the research process, a challenge that I encountered was when I was researching one of my subheadings when the challenge occurred. When I was looking there was not a lot of sources for the information I needed. These sources were also not that reliable for different reasons. For example, some of the sources were not well known. Though on the other hand, these problems were solved by looking up these sources to see if they are reliable. Another way is that I checked the other sources to see if they were saying the same information. (Josephine, Year 7)

One challenge I faced when I was researching was trying to find websites with specific information that I need and are not out of date and to solve this problem I had to search with more detailed questions. However, I had to make sure that the question made sense to get the correct information. (Gwendolyn, Year 7)

During the research process, a challenge that I encountered was when multiple sources I looked at would not have the information I needed and/or were not accurate and reliable enough. Some sources I decided to discard were because the information wasn’t accurate when I double checked it and it just didn’t make sense. One of the sources I decided to discard claimed that Ancient China was located in Russia. “China” was also spelt without a capital letter and that is a big red flag right there. Therefore I decided to discard and get rid of this nonsense because whoever wrote this needs to do their own research before posting something like this online. How I was able to overcome this was by using a credible source such as National Geographic and making sure all the information I got from other sources corresponded with this source and I would research in multiple sources for one topic. (Joana, Year 7)

During the research process, a challenge that I encountered was when I was researching the artifact I had chosen, the book: “On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs”. Furthermore, because the manuscript is written in Latin, it was very interesting because it contains a lot of vocabulary and information that doctors used but it was also hard to understand some things because they were very complex. (Irina, Year 7)

During the research process, a challenge that I encountered was that the Mayan civilisation is a culture that is really hard to research: there are only a few sites on the internet that were useful. Also, I needed to verify if my information was reliable, which is something that is challenging and take time for me. (Janson, Year 7)

On support from their teacher…

When I faced a problem which was finding good and reliable sources, my teacher helped me to see if the source was reliable. There was a source which did not look that reliable but at the same time the name sounded very prestigious. Due to that my teacher searched up the name and it turned out that it was from a very good university - Yale. This was helpful because this source had very good information that was needed in my investigation.   (Josephine, Year 7)

My teacher was very supportive when I was researching about the Ancient Roman Civilisation. Whenever I needed help, she would be there for me. I really appreciated it when I was researching more about the manuscript on The New York Times website, she supported me by teaching me some words and showing me how to use artificial intelligence to rephrase and understand the main points from the article, which I then changed into my own words once I understood the ideas better. (Irina, Year 7)

Something that really helped me and my learning was when my teacher helped me understand the text on a website that was unclear to me. That really helped me and the end quality of my research which then impacted my summary. This did not only help me but teacher also enjoyed helping me because she said she gained knowledge from it. (Anna, Year 7)

On a skill that they have improved during the research process…

I think my research skills are improving the most in this project, because I researched a lot of useful information in this project. I learned a lot about the Mayan civilisation, but the most useful thing is that I learned how to research in a really quality way. This is something that I improved on. (Janson, Year 7)

The skill that I improved the most was summarising the text on a website into my own words because at the beginning, I would have to look back to the website and it would be really hard to write something in my own words but now I can read through the sentence once and then turn the original text into my own words. (Anna, Year 7)

I think I have improved my managing time skills a lot. For example, I have always done the tasks in the investigation and finished them before the due date. In addition, on the weekends, I did extra work like researching my sub-questions or doing my artifact. I am very proud of what I have achieved and learned in this unit. On the other hand, there is always room for improvement. I also believe it is important to listen to others' perspectives and feedback at the same time as focusing on what you think is best. (Irina, Year 7)

I think the three most developed skills I improved were writing a research summary in my own words, using my own words in everything, and carefully reading sources to gain the information I need. I learnt to write in my own words to avoid copying others. I learnt to carefully read sources because some information might be deeper into the webpage. (Maksim, Year 7)

On their personal highlight of the unit…

My personal highlight of this unit was discovering new facts about our chosen Ancient Civilization. It was fun to connect with other people. Although some students were doing the same Ancient Civilisation, we all learned new things from each other because we had different research areas. It was amazing to be able to present and share information with the Year 6 students because it was a great opportunity to connect with them and it will also have a major impact when they are going to research and present next year. (Irina, Year 7)

My highlight was the presentation to the Year 6 students. (Janson, Year 7)

In my opinion, I had two different highlights about the unit. The first highlight was the research and being able to have the freedom to do research the way I wanted to. The second highlight was the day we presented to the Year 6s because it was a time when we were able to share our knowledge to the other people that wanted to learn more. I also enjoyed the museum experience because I was able to go and learn things about the other civilisations when there wasn't anyone at my table. (Anna, Year 7)

On why it is valuable to learn about the factors that help shape a civilisation…

It is important to know and understand the physical factors of a civilisation. For example, Ancient Rome was surrounded by mountains, so therefore it was protected from invasion. Additionally, it had a coast line, so they could provide food by fishing, and they could also trade crops and spices with cities in Greece. (Irina, Year 7)

I think it is very important and valuable to learn about the factors that help shape a civilisation as they helped shape today’s civilisation and they made a very big impact on today’s world and how it was developed. Furthermore, to fully understand how the world and how modern civilisations were established and developed, we need to be able to understand and learn about the physical geography and how it helped and impacted their development. (Joana, Year 7)

A word of advice for next year’s cohort…

Some advice I would give to the next Year 7 students would be to use a lot of different sources to make sure your information is reliable. Write a lot on your research but make sure it is not too much because it will make it hard to fit into the word count for your research summary. Get working on your poster because if you don’t start early, you might have simply one single lesson to work on it. TOP TIP: Work on your investigation at home to make sure you aren’t behind, so you have the time to work on your investigation and get a good grade. (Joana, Year 7)

And a final thought on experiencing a few weeks in the life of an historian…

I really enjoyed learning about the Ancient Romans because it increased my knowledge, and it was really fun looking at different websites and learning about how the Romans lived. (Anna, Year 7)

Thank you to the students of ISL who generously took the time to respond to these additional questions on top of all your hard work on the investigation and exhibit itself! And a big thank you to the ISL A-team for setting up the museum exhibit space.

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