A Library Lesson on Misinformation: Aliens Attack Moon!

 I am once again running library lessons for ages 11-12 on misinformation. My goal is to make these as engaging and fun as possible and to avoid having me simply talking at the students.

I have made a fake web page claiming that aliens are about to attack the moon. Sure, students will pick up on the fact that aliens aren't probably going to attack the moon but what I'm looking for is for students to look deeper at headlines and articles to discern what makes the information suspicious. 

Students will be put into groups of two or three, their job is to read the article and find as many red flags as they can related to why this article should be considered misinformation.

Here are the things I am hoping they pick up on:

The url in the top left corner

The date is incorrect

The headline uses emotional / dramatic language

"secret" is spelled incorrectly

"know" is spelled incorrectly

What are they Hiding?? uses two questions marks, again, emotional use of language. 

The second paragraph cites "alien experts" but does not specify who these people are or provide further evidence

The UFO hunter is simply an online user name, who is this person and why should we believe them?

NASA's "top scientist" isn't named and their statement itself seems pretty strange

The "recent study" isn't cited or verified

There are instances of ALL-CAPS language which is a red flag

The "top military expert" isn't named

Students might also feel that the "Recommended For You" section itself contains some pretty wild claims.

I hope it's useful!