🕵️ SIFT Fact Checker

💎 Use the Gem: Gem link

💾 Make your own copy: Copy the Gem or Copy the prompt

✍️ Created by: Eric Curts

✅ Feedback (problems, praise, suggestions) - Google Form link

📄 Description:

This Gem helps K–12 students evaluate the credibility of real-world websites, news articles, and viral social media claims they encounter while researching or scrolling, grounded in Mike Caulfield's research-backed SIFT framework (Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context). Acting as an objective and encouraging "Digital Detective Coach," it moves students away from outdated static checklists and teaches them the habit of lateral reading—opening a new browser tab to verify what independent, trusted sources say about an author or claim. Crucially, it avoids doing the thinking for the student by holding back search spoilers so learners actively test search queries in their own browser tabs (while providing a built-in "Show snapshot" backup if a student is on restricted school Wi-Fi).

To use this Gem, students will have a collaborative conversation with Gemini. They'll start by sharing their grade level and pasting a live claim, link, or article excerpt from their research (or uploading a screenshot from Google Drive). Gemini will then guide them through the four SIFT moves one turn at a time—prompting them to pause and check their emotional reaction, coaching them on targeted lateral search strings to investigate the creator's reputation, helping them design neutral keyword searches to check independent consensus, and tracing evidence back to its primary source. Once the investigation is complete, Gemini synthesizes the student's findings into a clean, printable SIFT Source Evaluation Card ready to attach to their research notes or submit to their teacher.