Name: _____________________
Class: ____ Date: ___________
Game: Fibbers vs Truth Seekers
An extension of “Picking the right software”
INTRODUCTION
In April, IT Consultant James Ten spoke to What’s Up about how information literacy is
critical for the work he does. He also had good advice for students. For instance, he said
it was important to separate reliable from unreliable data. To get some practice in
doing this, play the following game.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. READ “Picking the right software”. The article can be found on page 17 of What’s
Up April 2014 and also at the website www.whatsup.sg. Pay extra attention to Mr
Ten’s last answer and the summary “Learning from Mr Ten”.
2. FORM eight teams by dividing your class fairly equally. Each team prepares one
fact-cum-fibs poster for the game.
3. PREPARE your team’s game poster. Pick an interesting topic and collect some truths
about it. Next, purposely add in points that are not true (the fibs). But, make them
sounds as true as your facts. Keep a careful record of your sources for the true facts.
Present your fact-cum-fibs paragraph on an attractive poster. Here is an example:
Seahorse Facts: Seahorses are fish. They are carnivores. They live for around one to five years.
They move in herds. Seahorses have no teeth. They have no stomachs. They use their tails to hook
on to seaweeds. The largest seahorse is only a little more than a foot long. The male seahorse is
the one that carries the unborn babies.
Our Sources For Facts):
http://www.nwf.org/kids/ranger-rick/animals/fish/seahorses.aspx
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/sea-horse/,
http://www.theseahorsetrust.org/
For Our Poster (Facts-Fibs Mixture): Seahorses are mammals because they are horses that
live in the sea. They are carnivores. They live for around thirty years. They move in herds.
Seahorses have tiny teeth. They have no stomachs. They use their tails to hook on to seaweeds.
The largest seahorse is only a little more than a foot long. The female seahorse carries the
unborn babies.
In the example above, only the last part – the “For Our Poster” paragraph – will be
shown on the poster. Your team should keep the first two parts hidden from the rest
of the class. Display all the posters in class.
4. PLAY the game. Walk around and read the posters of other teams. Detect the fibs in
each one. Next, get back into your groups and finalise lists of fibs. You may consult
books and websites to check your facts.
Every team presents its poster to the class. The other teams point out the fibs. The
presenting team tells the class whether all fibs were found out. When all the teams
have gone their turns, the game is over. Everyone is a winner because you have
learnt a lot as well as practiced being a truth seeker!
IDEAS 2014-04