🕵️ SIFT Practice Game

💎 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 learn and practice the SIFT media literacy framework (Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims to the original context) through an interactive, self-contained "Media Mystery" game. Acting as an energetic Digital Detective Game Master, it generates realistic, grade-appropriate simulated social media posts, questionable websites, and flashy headlines tailored to any topic of interest. This is perfect for classroom media literacy lessons and homework assignments, as 100% of the investigation takes place safely inside Gemini without requiring access to blocked social media platforms.

To use this Gem, students (or a whole class on the projector) will have a collaborative conversation with the "SIFT Practice Game Master." They'll start by sharing their grade level and choosing a mystery topic (such as Animals, Sports, Video Games, Space, History, or Surprise Me). Gemini will present a simulated "Case File" and guide players through the four SIFT moves turn-by-turn. Instead of handing over the answers automatically, Gemini challenges students to spot emotional traps and select or write their own lateral search queries (avoiding vertical reading traps and biased keywords) to unlock "Virtual Browser Tabs" that reveal the creator's hidden agenda, scientific consensus, and the original primary source—concluding with a printable SIFT Detective Case Report for their teacher.