Did you put on sunscreen today? Yes? Go put on some more.
Tans may be fashionable, but the risks that come with sun damage are anything but — and they can last a lifetime. That's why England banned tanning beds for anyone under 18 back in 2011. Even so, people as young as 14 have found ways to use them illegally. Now, the rules are getting stricter: businesses will be legally required to check ID before letting anyone near a sunbed, and salons will need to post clear health warnings — including dropping any misleading claims that certain beds can prevent sunburn or help with weight loss.
Even with stronger laws, misinformation is still a problem. Rumors about tanning beds offering benefits like vitamin D have a way of spreading while the risks get quietly ignored. Experts say that even a single tanning bed session before the age of 35 increases the risk of skin cancer by nearly 60% — and young skin is especially vulnerable. Skin cancer is already the most common cancer in the world. The tan isn't worth it.
We live in a time where we can get up-to-the-minute updates. So how do we make sure we’re getting the most current and most accurate news? Introduce your students to the concept of developing news stories. In this lesson, they’ll explore what can cause the news to change and how to distinguish changing information from corrected information.
Fact or fake? Introduce your students to the role of social media in spreading accurate news as well as inaccurate news and rumors. In this lesson, they’ll investigate questions they should ask before sharing news on social media and then design a flowchart for evaluating whether a news story is “shareworthy.”
“Fake news” gets thrown around a lot, but what’s actually required of journalists in terms of accuracy? Introduce your students to the ways journalists are expected to verify information. In this lesson, they’ll learn how to distinguish facts from rumors or opinions
In Why Does News Keep Changing?, host Radzi Chinyanganya explores the way news stories develop and change over time. For example, the Australian bushfires became an international news story in 2019 and 2020. While the initial stories highlighted the destruction and death of people and animals, the media later looked at the impact of climate change as a cause of the fires. Disinformation also spread as the story developed. Some rumors said that the fires were started by environmentalists to bring awareness, but journalists were able to disprove these claims. As coverage expands, journalists must update their stories and correct any statements that were previously wrong. This video is excerpted from BBC’s My World, a program created for teenagers eager to learn more about the important stories shaping our world.
In From Cowpox to a Smallpox Vaccine, host Andrew Marr introduces us to Edward Jenner, a young English doctor who was impacted by smallpox as a child. As an adult, he heard a rumor that people who catch cowpox were protected against smallpox. This sparked the idea for the first vaccine and produced a vaccine that would eradicate smallpox from the world, saving millions of lives. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andrew Marr's History of the World, a story of human history that uses reenactments, modern footage, and storytelling to explain history’s greatest achievements.
Did you put on sunscreen today? Yes? Go put on some more.
Tans may be fashionable, but the risks that come with sun damage are anything but — and they can last a lifetime. That's why England banned tanning beds for anyone under 18 back in 2011. Even so, people as young as 14 have found ways to use them illegally. Now, the rules are getting stricter: businesses will be legally required to check ID before letting anyone near a sunbed, and salons will need to post clear health warnings — including dropping any misleading claims that certain beds can prevent sunburn or help with weight loss.
Even with stronger laws, misinformation is still a problem. Rumors about tanning beds offering benefits like vitamin D have a way of spreading while the risks get quietly ignored. Experts say that even a single tanning bed session before the age of 35 increases the risk of skin cancer by nearly 60% — and young skin is especially vulnerable. Skin cancer is already the most common cancer in the world. The tan isn't worth it.
We live in a time where we can get up-to-the-minute updates. So how do we make sure we’re getting the most current and most accurate news? Introduce your students to the concept of developing news stories. In this lesson, they’ll explore what can cause the news to change and how to distinguish changing information from corrected information.
Fact or fake? Introduce your students to the role of social media in spreading accurate news as well as inaccurate news and rumors. In this lesson, they’ll investigate questions they should ask before sharing news on social media and then design a flowchart for evaluating whether a news story is “shareworthy.”
“Fake news” gets thrown around a lot, but what’s actually required of journalists in terms of accuracy? Introduce your students to the ways journalists are expected to verify information. In this lesson, they’ll learn how to distinguish facts from rumors or opinions
In Why Does News Keep Changing?, host Radzi Chinyanganya explores the way news stories develop and change over time. For example, the Australian bushfires became an international news story in 2019 and 2020. While the initial stories highlighted the destruction and death of people and animals, the media later looked at the impact of climate change as a cause of the fires. Disinformation also spread as the story developed. Some rumors said that the fires were started by environmentalists to bring awareness, but journalists were able to disprove these claims. As coverage expands, journalists must update their stories and correct any statements that were previously wrong. This video is excerpted from BBC’s My World, a program created for teenagers eager to learn more about the important stories shaping our world.
In From Cowpox to a Smallpox Vaccine, host Andrew Marr introduces us to Edward Jenner, a young English doctor who was impacted by smallpox as a child. As an adult, he heard a rumor that people who catch cowpox were protected against smallpox. This sparked the idea for the first vaccine and produced a vaccine that would eradicate smallpox from the world, saving millions of lives. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andrew Marr's History of the World, a story of human history that uses reenactments, modern footage, and storytelling to explain history’s greatest achievements.