Tomorrow Ready ResourcesEvaluating AI Output → Automation Is Not Research
[P+S] Primary & Secondary Evaluating AI Output

Automation Is Not Research

Browser automation can produce a bibliography quickly, but credibility is still a thinking process. You do not need to outpace automation. You need to make the evaluation step non-optional and visible.

Run Two Sources, One Claim using only classroom-approved sources. Simple comparison grid with five components. Mark the justification, not the source count.

  • The claim, written as one sentence
  • Source A: what it says and why it is credible for this claim
  • Source B: what it says and why it is credible for this claim
  • Which source is stronger for this task and why
  • What each source leaves out

The comparison grid pushes students beyond "this source is good" toward genuine disciplinary evaluation. Four questions worth building into the habit:

  • Is this source broad or specialist?
  • What evidence does it use?
  • What does it oversimplify?
  • How well does it match the assessment purpose?

When students can answer these four questions for two sources about the same claim, they are doing research. When they cannot, they are doing link collection.

Primary — Year 6 Science

Students choose one sentence from a Science explanation and find two classroom-approved sources that either support or challenge it. They write: "Source A is stronger because..." The justification is the learning.

Secondary — Year 11

Students take a key claim for an internal and compare two sources: one broad, one specialist. They justify which source better matches the assessment purpose and name what each leaves out.

Have I designed research as a credibility judgement task, or as a link-collection task?

Equity: are all students working from the same approved set, or does access create an uneven playing field? Accuracy: do students confuse confident language with credible evidence? Both are design problems, not student problems.

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