Searching and Evaluating Online Information — Year 3 Lesson Plan
National Curriculum: Computing KS2 — use search technologies effectively, appreciate how results are selected and ranked, and be discerning in evaluating digital content; use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly
Overview
Pupils learn how search engines work — how they index the web and rank results — and develop skills to search effectively and evaluate the information they find. They explore what makes an online source reliable, discuss the concept of copyright, and practise applying evaluation criteria to a range of websites. The lesson builds critical digital literacy skills that underpin all future research across the curriculum.
Learning Objectives
- Describe how a search engine finds and ranks results.
- Use effective search terms to locate specific information online.
- Apply criteria to evaluate whether a website is reliable and trustworthy.
- Explain what copyright means and why it matters for digital content.
Key Vocabulary
Suggested Lesson Structure
Show three results for the same search: a news article from a national newspaper, a personal blog, and an anonymous wiki page. Ask: which would you trust most for a school project? Why? Take a show of hands and discuss reasoning. Establish that not everything online is equally reliable — knowing how to judge sources is a crucial skill.
How does a search engine work? Three steps: crawling (bots visit web pages and follow links), indexing (pages are catalogued with keywords), ranking (results are ordered by relevance, authority, and other signals). The top result is not always the most accurate — it may be the most popular or the best-optimised. Introduce evaluation criteria: Author (who wrote it?), Date (when?), Purpose (are they selling something?), Accuracy (does it match other sources?). Model evaluating a webpage live. Then introduce copyright: images, text, and music online are protected — using them without permission is illegal. Creative Commons licences allow certain free uses.
Pairs evaluate three provided websites on the same topic using the Author, Date, Purpose, Accuracy criteria. They score each site and rank them. Teacher circulates: 'How did you find out who wrote this? Could you find a date? What is the purpose of this site?'
Pupils practise effective searching: given a specific question, they try three different search terms and compare results. They record which term gave the most useful results and why. Then they find one image they could legally use for a school project by looking for Creative Commons licensed images.
Quick-fire: name one criterion for evaluating a website. What does copyright protect? If a search result is at the top, does that mean it is the most accurate? Pull together: being a careful online researcher is a skill — always check who wrote something, when, and why, before using it in your work.
Common Misconceptions
- The first search result is always the best or most accurate — ranking is based on many signals including popularity, not just accuracy.
- Everything on the internet is free to use — most text, images, and music are protected by copyright and cannot be copied without permission.
Prior Knowledge
Pupils should already be able to:
- Experience using the internet for research in KS1.
- Basic awareness of online safety rules: keeping personal information private.
- Understanding that not all information is equally trustworthy.
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