| “Real Fact” | Our Guess | What might be good sources? |
| 822 The only joint less bone in The body is in your throat. | False | Wikipedia, Snapple.com, Britannica, Ref. book about Human Body, Hospital Websites, Doctor of Bones |
| 330 The top of the Empire State Building was originally built as a place to anchor blimps. | False | Wikipedia, Britannica, Empire State Building Official Website, Books on Empire State Building |
| 928New York City has 722 miles of subway track. | True | MTA.info, Britannica, Ask.com, Books about subways |
| 902 Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. | True | Barbie Book (The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie), Britannica, Wikipedia, |
| 891 Pound cake got its name from the original recipe which called for a pound of butter. | True | Cook Books, Britannica, Wikipedia, Pound Cake Website, Entemaine, Cooking Website? |
| 251 There are more French restaurants in New York City than in Paris. | Undecided | French Restaurants Website, Britannica, Google Earth (Google Map), |
| 114The oldest known animal was a tortoise which lived to be 152 years old. | False | World Records book |
| 811The dots on a domino are called pips. | True | answers.com, Britannica, Wikipedia |
| 716 There is a museum of Strawberries in Belgium. | False | Britannica, Wikipedia, Books, Snapple.com |
| 847Until The nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia. | False | Britannica, Wikipedia, Books, Tea Websites |
| 827 Your skull is made up of 29 different bones. | False | Britannica, Wikipedia, Health Websites, Doctor, Surgeon, Hospital, Hospital Sites |
| 843 Bamboo (the world’s tallest grass) can grow up to 90cm in a day. | True | ? |
| 890 The number 1 or the word One appears on The dollar bill 16 times. | True | ? |
| 119 The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. | False | |
For the last few weeks, the 4th grade students have been investigating closely some “facts” as presented by the Snapple Real Facts (printed inside the bottle caps.) We discussed the validity of various forms of sources and discovered that what really matters is the expertise of the person/people responsible for providing the information for these sources: be they books, online databases, blogs, organizations, websites, newspapers or magazines, etc.
The following is the information gathered by Younge House students for an internal “database” residing on the School’s course management site. The 4th Grade Snapple Real Facts Buster is a searchable, sortable, full functioning database — but only accessible for those with valid login IDs and PWs.
| Real Facts #: |
110
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Frogs never drink.
|
| Conclusion: |
Partially True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
Research shows that frogs do drink, though not directly through their mouths. Frogs absorb water through their skin. To us, drinking is swallowing a liquid. Sammy and I have checked through The American Museum of Natural History. It was simple and easy to find this information. If the people at Snapple meant that frogs don’t drink the way humans do, then they are correct, but they should make it clear that that is what they mean. This is a great source because it is a museum that is for the specific purpose of teaching about the natural world. We can also trust the book Smithsonian Institution Animal The Definitive Visual Guide To The World’s Wildlife because it was published which means it was checked to see if all the information was correct.
|
| Source 1: |
Website: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/frogs/life/skin.php
|
| Source 2: |
Book: Smithsonian Institution Animal The Definitive Visual Guide To The World’s Wildlife
|
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Mia and Sammy
|
| Real Facts #: |
243
|
| Real Fact Text: |
If you put all the streets in New York City in a straight line,they would stretch to Japan.
|
| Conclusion: |
All True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
First, I used Google Maps to find that 9,585 miles is the distance from New York City to Japan.The department of transportation says that there is 11,000 miles of local streets. This was a very hard problem.
|
| Source 1: |
Google maps
|
| Source 2: |
The DOT (Department of Transportation) website
|
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Ryan
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
251
|
| Real Fact Text: |
There are more French restaurants in New York City than in Paris.
|
| Conclusion: |
Partially True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
This fact is VERY hard to verify. We have searched countless sites. According to Zagat.com, there are 608 French restaurants in Paris and 286 French restaurants, in NYC. But on timeout magazine there are 4 French restaurants and 230 French restaurants in NYC. On the about us page on Zagat.com it says that it takes anybody’s contributions. |
| Source 1: |
Zagat.com
|
| Source 2: |
Time out NY
|
| Source 3: |
Time out PAris
|
| Student Names: |
Chloe and Kate
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
327
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Chewing gum was invented in New York City in 1870 by Thomas Adams
|
| Conclusion: |
Partially True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
This fact is hard to verify because they each had two different answers. For our research source we used about.com with the help of google and checked it with a bunch of others including answer.com. Wikipedia also helped us and had basically the same answer. We realized that Thomas Adams did NOT invent chewing gum, he just did experiments from the gum the Native Americans created from sap, and made it better.
|
| Source 1: |
Encyclopedia
|
| Source 2: |
About.com
|
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Jamie and Kayla
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
706
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Steel is 100% recyclable.
|
| Conclusion: |
All True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
I learned that steel is100% recyclable. From three web sites. 2 said that steel is 100% recyclable and the other said that steel knots are 100% recyclable. So since it is 2 to 1 the 2 wins. It was easy to find the answer. Euofer.org Is a good website that has info on material |
| Source 1: |
http://www.eurofer.org/index.php/eng/content/download/517/3071/file/SteelRecycling.pdf
|
| Source 2: |
|
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Nate
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
800
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Most lipstick contains fish scales
|
| Conclusion: | |
| Explanation of Findings: |
It is hard to verify this information.
|
| Source 1: | |
| Source 2: | |
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Zachary W
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
838
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them
|
| Conclusion: |
All True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
At first Nicky thought it was false and Will wasn’t sure. After, we looked for a reliable source.
|
| Source 1: |
Foodsiteoftheday.com
|
| Source 2: | |
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Will and Nicky
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
855
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Oregon has more ghost towns than any other U.S state.
|
| Conclusion: | |
| Explanation of Findings: |
At first it was challenging to find a reliable source that gave us the facts we needed. Then we found a reliable site that gave us the facts we wanted, but then we found another good site and the information is contradicting. So we still don’t know what the real conclusion is.
|
| Source 1: |
http://www.ghosttowns.com/
|
| Source 2: |
http://www.traveloregon.com/explore-
|
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Younge Kaylen Hunte, and Zachary Love
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
858
|
| Real Fact Text: |
New Jersey is home to the world’s first drive-in movie theater.
|
| Conclusion: |
All True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
This fact is on the harder side to find. The search engine I used was Google. I trust the New Jersey state website the most because it is the official website of New Jersey. As for the words that I searched, I do not remember the exact words that I used to search for the answer of this fact.
|
| Source 1: |
http://www.state.nj.us/hangout_nj/200403_driveins_p1.html,
|
| Source 2: |
http://www.marshu.com/articles/nj-drive-in-movie-theaters-
|
| Source 3: |
http://www.marshu.com/articles/nj-drive-in-movie-theaters-new-jersey-drive-ins.php
|
| Student Names: |
Marco
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
885
|
| Real Fact Text: |
Vultures can fly for six hours without flapping their wings
|
| Conclusion: | |
| Explanation of Findings: |
We know that they are excellent soaring birds but we don’t know the exact number hours it can soar. We know it can fly without flapping wings for hours.
|
| Source 1: |
Website: http://worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar588980&st=vultures
|
| Source 2: |
Website/Organization: National Audubon society
|
| Source 3: | |
| Student Names: |
Shaan and Henry
|
| Additional Sources: | |
| Real Facts #: |
890
|
| Real Fact Text: |
The number 1 or the word one appears sixteen times on the dollar bill.
|
| Conclusion: |
All True
|
| Explanation of Findings: |
We know that the number 1, or the word “one” appears 16 times on the dollar bill because Clio counted.
|
| Source 1: |
The 1 dollar bill
|
| Source 2: |
experiment
|
| Source 3: |
Clio
|
| Student Names: |
Clio and Susannah
|
| Additional Sources: | |
These stories are from Joseph Jacobs’ English Fairy Tales. Please read it with your partner aloud: taking turns, with the appropriate pacing, voice expressions, and character traits. Then come back to the Reading Room for sharing.
Well.. actually, many databases, and so much more!
We’re having a fun and productive time in Library classes this first month of the school year.
In 4th grade Libraries, the students are loving the humorous AND scary tale penned by Adam Gidwitz, based on some lesser known, and darker tales collected and retold by the Brothers Grimm. The title of the book is A Tale Dark and Grimm and will be available in stores on October 28th! Mr. Gidwitz, a Broolynite, will come to Dalton and work with the students in January 2011.
The 4th grade students are also reading excerpts from the Newbery winning book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies by Laura Amy Schlitz. They are also watching the one-act play based on the book: our own Dalton Theater department’s production from last school year. We learn a lot about what life might have been like for various young people in a Medieval village.
In 5th grade, the students have been discovering all kinds of information sources, including print materials such as Encyclopedias and daily newspapers and online resources such as biographical and science databases. In classes, they explore the concepts of authority, expertise, and credibility which are the cornerstones of reliable informational sources.
6th grade students have been working on their graph projects in Math and have either come to the Library for one-on-one assistance, or utilized the materials we put aside for them for their projects; in the meantime, they are reading many library books and working on literary projects for their English classes.
Most of the 7th grade students have finished reading their “genre of the month” book and are working on the Library/English project of book posters. They must come up with catchy tag lines and strong graphic designs to advertise the Horror and Suspense novels they checked out from the library.
These are the many types of books that we have in the MS Library. Many of them have special genre stickers. Do you know where they all are?
Here is the list of most of the MS Library sections, grouped by location proximity:
Reference, Biography and Nonfiction
Horror, Suspense, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Paperback Fiction
Hardcover Fiction (in the Reading Room)
Classics and Humor (on the Balcony)
Wordsmith.org: Today's Word
