Ancient mysteries?
Teacher's notes
The aim of this lesson is for students to critically assess the information on websites
by comparing mainstream and alternative theories on three topics. The intention is to
raise their awareness of the need to consider the provenance of the information and
give them 'tools' with which make assessments.
Students will need to use reading strategies, such as scanning a page for key words to
decide if it has relevant information and skimming to understand the gist.
Mainstream and alternative theories
Students can check or find explanations when they look at the websites. However, for
reference:
 The Pyramids of Egypt: generally seen as tombs for the pharaohs, alternatively
their alignment has astrological significance and they were built by descendants of
a lost civilisation.
 Atlantis: a myth with its origins in stories by Plato, which he wrote as a political
allegory. Alternatively, based on real events when an early civilisation was
destroyed in a natural disaster.
 The Nazca lines: giant drawings in the desert of Peru. Mainstream academic
opinion seems to regard them as probably of religious significance. Alternatively,
they are landing zones for spacecraft.
Possible criteria
Kathy Schrok's 'The ABCs of Website Evaluation" (http://kathyschrok.net/abceval/)
includes the following ideas:
 Authority: Who is the author? Recognisable name? Is there any information on
their job or qualifications?
 Bias: Is there any information about the organisation behind the page? What is
their mission? What is their reason for providing the information?
 Citations: Are there any references to the sources of the information?
 Dates: Is the information up-to-date?
 Misinformation: "The use of opinion verbs and appeals to emotion may indicate
bias"
d:\533579663.doc
© Chris Jones and The British Council, 2016
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Registered in England as a charity.
Ancient mysteries?
Suggested websites:
The Pyramids
www.planetarymysteries.com/egypt.html
www.ancientegypt.co.uk/pyramids
Atlantis
www.atlan.org
www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/Atlantis/index.html
The Nazca lines
www.crystalinks.com/nasca.html
www.unmuseum.org/nazca.htm
d:\533579663.doc
© Chris Jones and The British Council, 2016
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Registered in England as a charity.
Ancient mysteries?
Preparation
Talk to one or two other people in your class. Discuss these questions:


What do you know about the following:

the Pyramids in Egypt?

Atlantis?

the Nazca lines?
What is the generally accepted 'mainstream' academic or scientific
explanation for each one?

Have you heard of any 'alternative' theories?
Evaluating websites
If two different websites give conflicting information on a topic, then you need to
decide which is more believable or reliable. What information can you look for in order
to judge the credibility of a site? Note your ideas below.
Online
Choose one of the 'Ancient mysteries' and look at the two websites your teacher gives
you.
1. Make notes on the explanations given on each site.
Website 1
Website 2
d:\533579663.doc
© Chris Jones and The British Council, 2016
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Registered in England as a charity.
Ancient mysteries?
2. Decide which website has more academic credibility. Look for the information you
discussed in 'Evaluating websites'. Make notes below.
Website 1
Website 2
Offline
Form new groups with students who looked at other topics.

Tell each other about the different explanations you discovered.

Discuss which explanation you prefer and why.

Discuss which information was most useful in comparing the sites.
Together decide on a final list of criteria for evaluating the reliability of information
contained in websites.
d:\533579663.doc
© Chris Jones and The British Council, 2016
The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Registered in England as a charity.