July 15, 1997

When they first arrived at the Shodor Foundation the IEC students reviewed the Observer from the previous day. Following this, Joe South began a review from the previous day. He talked about the danger of electronic mailing, and explained to the students about the outcome of Internet mailing threats with a story about Cal Ripken. When Joe finished reviewing, Anne Thissen talked about the reliability of Internet sites. "How do you know something is true?"said Anne.

Then intern, Jonathan Pahl sarcastically replied "you don't" which actually heightened the point that Anne was trying to make. "If you find information on the Internet, it could be true as well as untrue, but you never know" stated Anne.

You can tell that the IEC students were interested in Anne's presentation because they all were taking notes. Anne then gave them tips on how you could trust an Internet site. When the IEC students finished taking notes, they shared newspaper articles that they had gathered for their previous night's homework.

After Anne's presentation Joe returned to discussed several ways of finding information of a specific topic located on the Internet. The next activity that the Internet Explorers did was researched the periodic table of elements.

Anne talked to the IEC students about knowledge on the Internet. She discussed how to tell if something on the Internet was believable. They looked at certain sites given to them by Anne to tell whether they were reliable or not. They discussed with their partners whether a site was credible using a list that the class collectively made on the board.

Next, intern, Monte Evans taught the IEC students how to organize their bookmarks. The students created bookmarks for five internet sites, then learned how to insert folders and separators. Also they learned how to change the name of individual bookmarks to make them less confusing. Finally Monte taught them how to copy bookmarks on to their disk.

Alton Patrick, showed the Internet Explorers how to use a search engine. They used two of the most popular search engines, Yahoo and Altavista. Alton showed them how to use categories in Yahoo and a key word search in Altavista. "I think it went very well and I am quite excited to work with these kids," say Alton after he completed teaching the course.

Following Alton's presentation Joe returned to have the students apply their knowledge to practical things on the Internet. Joe had the IEC students search the distance between Saturn and the sun. After they found several sites with this information on it they discussed the reliability of the site. They found one possible answer at a NASA site. Joe asked about the site's credibility. "It has reputation for what NASA has," exclaimed Shodor's Internet Explorer Amanda.

Joe then replied, "[It's] independently verified." Joe then gave the Internet Explorers instructions to go out on the Internet and find a science related topic of their choice on the Internet .

Students left the Foundation with a better understanding of how to properly search and bookmark sites on the Internet for later use. In addition, the students also learned how to tell the reliability of an Internet site. Now, with the knowledge of the Internet practically in their grasp the IEC students get ready for a new and interesting horizon.