This assignment follows from a presentation that shows high school and early college students how information gaps function. The presentation uses information regarding the dwarf planet Pluto as an example, then prompts students to apply the tools they've learned to investigate an information gap in solar energy policy: solar energy AND communities experiencing high poverty rates.

This session was part of an undergraduate, critical thinking and global perspectives course. The course is offered by various disciplines on campus. This instance focused on global challenges (The Seven Revolutions developed by csis.org). For the session the students applied two frameworks to data: authority is constructed and contextual and scholarship as conversation. Students learned about a data life cycle concept with emphasis on evaluation.

This concept map and activity explores how various sources of information are created, accessed, and shared. Students collaboratively define what makes a source traditional, emerging, public, or exclusive. Students are given a type of information source to map on the grid according to each axis, and provide a rationale for their placement.

In this exercise students use the Voyant word analysis tool to analyze Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. (Any literary work would work.)