Real or Fake?
Begin by asking having students access the student chapter House Hippo 2.0 or show the video in fullscreen.
Then ask students:
What do you already know about hippos?
What might make you believe that house hippos are real? Why might you want to believe it?
What might make you think house hippos are not real?
What were some things in the video that made you think house hippos might be real?
Now have students complete the Break the Fake Animals Quiz or show them the Course Presentation in the student chapter Real or Fake? .
If you show them the slideshow, have them guess whether each image is real or fake, then read the notes for each slide:
Slide 1: The sign warning about blackbirds is real; the one warning about squirrels is fake.
Slide 2: The octopus is made of plastic; the animal on the right, a blue glaucus, is real.
Slide 3: This photo, of a weasel clinging to the back of a woodpecker, was really taken by a nature photographer in England.
Slide 4: This is a real photo of an animal called the Malabar giant squirrel.
Slide 5: The image on the left is a deepfake; the one on the right is a real photo. (Cheetah cubs have a mantle of hair on their backs, which they lose when they grow up.)
Ask students:
What clues told you that a picture is real or fake?
Are there some pictures you were more sure about than others?
If you weren’t given the answers, how could you find out?
How do you know if you can trust a source like a book, a website or a video?