Checkology's three summer preset courses are focused on teaching students to responsibly and confidently consume, share and act on the information they encounter — skills that help students succeed in all subject areas. You can assign one of the following summer preset courses as is or you can use one as a template to create your own summer course:
- Middle school summer course
- High school summer course
- STEM summer course
Checkology's summer maintenance period is from July 1 - 31, 2023.
During this time, we make updates to improve Checkology and delete all student accounts in accordance with our privacy policy. Checkology will not be accessible to educators or students during this window. Please be sure to plan your summer school experience with Checkology so that it does not overlap with the maintenance period dates.
(Watch the video or read the article below to learn how to assign and edit a summer course.)
What's in the "Middle school summer course"?
Students often encounter an overwhelming amount of information in their day-to-day lives — especially online. This course focuses on building up students’ ability to differentiate between news and advertisements and to understand what an algorithm is and how they affect online experiences. With an emphasis on Check Center Missions, students will have plenty of opportunities to practice research and fact-checking skills to build up their news literacy toolbox. When using this preset course, we highly recommend that your students become familiar with the Check Center tips and tutorials first.
Lessons
- InfoZones
- What is News
- Branded Content
- Introduction to Algorithms
Supplemental activities
- InfoZones: School lunch
- Is it Legit?
- Ad or Not? Level 1
- Ad or Not? Level 2
Check Center missions
- Evaluating sources online
- Evaluating evidence online
- Verifying social media content
Course highlights and learning objectives
Learning objectives for each of the three lessons in this learning experience include:
- InfoZones: Categorize information into one of six “zones”: news, opinion, entertainment, advertising, propaganda or raw information.
- What is News?: Explore how journalists “filter” information, or determine which events and issues to cover in a given news cycle, by using key criteria.
- Branded Content: Learn about the relationship among advertisers, the news media and the public to understand the rise of branded content and to debate the ethical implications of new forms of marketing.
- Introduction to Algorithms: Interact with a mock social media site and search engine to understand the information that algorithms gather about you to personalize what you see online.
What's in the "High school summer course"?
Students often encounter an overwhelming amount of information in their day-to-day lives — especially online. This course focuses on building up students’ ability to differentiate between news, opinion and advertisements and identify misinformation when navigating online spaces. With an emphasis on Check Center Missions, students will have plenty of opportunities to practice research and fact-checking skills to build up their news literacy toolbox. When using this preset course, we highly recommend that your students become familiar with the Check Center tips and tutorials first.
Lessons
- Power In Art: The Watchdog Role of Editorial Cartoonists
- Branded Content
- Introduction to Algorithms
- Misinformation
Supplemental activities
- Is it Legit?
- News or Opinion? The Straw Ban
- Ad or Not? Level 2
- Ad or Not? Level 3
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MisinfoChallenge: Fact-checking 101
Check Center missions
- Evaluating sources online
- Can you search like a pro?
- Evaluating evidence online
Course highlights and learning objectives
Learning objectives for each of the three lessons in this learning experience include:
- Power In Art: Learn about the history of editorial cartooning as a unique and powerful form of opinion journalism and practice analyzing cartoons from the 1700s to the present day.
- Branded Content: Learn about the relationship among advertisers, the news media and the public to understand the rise of branded content and to debate the ethical implications of new forms of marketing.
- Introduction to Algorithms: Interact with a mock social media site and search engine to understand the information that algorithms gather about you to personalize what you see online.
- Misinformation: Learn to understand different types of misinformation and the ways that misinformation can damage democracy.
What's in the "STEM summer course"?
Accurately evaluating science- and data-based claims is an important skill for students who encounter an overwhelming amount of information in their day-to-day lives — especially online. This course focuses on building up students’ ability to assess the credibility of these claims and learn how to recognize and debunk pseudoscience and health misinformation. Students will have opportunities to practice research and fact-checking skills to build up their news literacy toolbox. When using this preset course, we recommend that your students become familiar with the Check Center tips and tutorials first.
Lessons
- Evaluating science-based claims
- Arguments & Evidence
- Making Sense of Data
- Misinformation
- Be Health Informed
Supplemental activities
- Spot the Logical Fallacy: Climate Change
- MisinfoQuest: Weather
Check Center missions
- Levels of evidence, with Dr. Kat
- Can you search like a pro?
Course highlights and learning objectives
Learning objectives for each of the three lessons in this learning experience include:
- Evaluating science-based claims: Learn how to recognize science-based claims and assess their credibility; explore why people resist and deny science; and gain the skills to evaluate science journalism.
- Arguments & Evidence: Experience the information aftermath of a fictional event as it unfolds on social media, learn about five common logical fallacies, then evaluate the evidence in several arguments.
- Making Sense of Data: Explore how we create, interact with, and are influenced by data in all aspects of our lives — and learn how to evaluate the accuracy of data-based claims and visualizations.
- Misinformation: Learn to understand different types of misinformation and the ways that misinformation can damage democracy.
- Be Health Informed: Discover how to make sense of the health and wellness information vying for our attention and how to avoid being misled.
Assigning a summer school course
Instructions for how to assign a preset course differ slightly depending on if you are assigning it to a brand-new class or whether you are assigning it to an existing class on your Checkology account.
Don't have a Checkology educator account yet? Just visit checkology.org to register for a free educator account and use our getting started guide to help you create your first class and add students.
Follow these steps to assign a summer preset course to a new Checkology class.
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Click the "+ Assign course" button.
You can find the "+ Assign course" button in two places:
- Under the student registration prompt
- On your Dashboard class tile
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Select "Change course."
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Scroll to summer course options.
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Click "Assign" next to a summer course.
Follow these steps to switch out an existing course for a summer preset course.
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Click the "View/Edit course" button.
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Select "Change course."
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Scroll to the summer course options.
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Click "Assign" next to a summer course.
Editing a summer preset course
Once you've assigned a summer school preset course to your class, you can return to the course management area anytime to edit it. Click "View/edit course" to enter the course management area and "Customize this course" to begin editing.
Related article: Editing a course
Adding students to a summer school class
To add new students (students without existing Checkology accounts) to your summer class, visit our "Adding students" article for instructions.
To add students who already have existing Checkology accounts to your summer class, visit our "Adding students to multiple classes" article for instructions.