Lesson Plan 5: Fact Checking Leonardo Da Vinci Timeline
Added: 27 Jul 2024
Contributor:
Patrick Hickey
Resource type:
Lesson 5, "Fact Checking Leonardo Da Vinci Timeline", focuses on developing students' critical analysis skills using an AI-generated timeline of Leonardo da Vinci's life. Key aspects include:
Students are presented with an AI-generated timeline of Leonardo da Vinci's life that contains numerous inaccuracies.
The lesson emphasizes the importance of fact-checking and verifying historical information, even when it appears authoritative.
Students act as "detectives" to identify errors in dates, events, and achievements in da Vinci's life.
The activity encourages students to use multiple credible sources to cross-reference and verify historical facts.
It highlights how AI can produce convincing but incorrect historical timelines, emphasizing the need for human critical thinking in historical research.
The lesson teaches students to approach all information, especially digital or AI-generated content, with a critical and questioning mindset.
This lesson aims to enhance students' historical knowledge about Leonardo da Vinci while developing crucial skills in critical thinking, information literacy, and historical research. These skills are applicable not just in history, but across all subjects and in evaluating information in everyday life.
How it maps to the curriculum
- JC
- History
Strand: 1. The Nature of History
Strand unit: 10. Chronological Awareness in Historical Era
Suggestions for use: Here are two suggestions for using the Leonardo da Vinci timeline fact-checking lesson: 1. Comparative Timeline Analysis: Have students create their own accurate timeline of da Vinci's life using reliable sources, then compare it side-by-side with the AI-generated version. This exercise reinforces research skills and highlights the discrepancies between AI-generated content and verified historical information. Students can present their findings, explaining why certain AI-generated "facts" are incorrect and discussing the potential consequences of such misinformation if left unchecked. 2. Cross-Curricular "Fact or Fiction" Game: Adapt the lesson into a game format that can be applied across subjects. Students are given a mix of AI-generated "facts" about various topics (historical figures, scientific discoveries, literary works) and must determine which are accurate and which are fabricated. This activity sharpens critical thinking skills, encourages quick fact-checking abilities, and demonstrates how AI misinformation can affect multiple disciplines. It reinforces the importance of skepticism and verification in all areas of study and life. Both these activities emphasize critical analysis of AI-generated content and the development of robust fact-checking skills that are crucial in our digital age.
Key Skills:
- Being Creative
- Communicating
- Managing Information and Thinking
- Staying Well
- Working with Others
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Managing Myself
