Google Fact Check Explorer

Students today are surrounded by information. News headlines, social media posts, videos, memes, and AI-generated content appear constantly in their feeds. The challenge isn’t just finding information anymore; it’s knowing whether that information is trustworthy.

Teaching students how to question and verify what they see online is now an essential digital literacy skill.

One free Google tool that can help with this is Google Fact Check Explorer, a searchable database of fact checks conducted by independent organizations around the world. While journalists frequently use it, it can also be a powerful classroom resource for helping students learn how to investigate claims and evaluate sources.

What Is Google Fact Check Explorer?

Google Fact Check Explorer is a tool that allows users to search for claims that have already been investigated by professional fact-checking organizations.

Instead of searching the web broadly, this tool searches verified fact-checking articles. When students search for a claim or topic, they can quickly see:

• The claim being evaluated
• Who made the claim
• Which organization checked it
• The conclusion of the fact check
• A link to the full article explaining the evidence

Students can search by keywords, phrases, or even the name of a person connected to a claim. The results provide a quick way to see whether a statement circulating online has already been investigated.

For teachers, this creates an opportunity to model how responsible researchers verify information before accepting it as true.

Why This Tool Is Valuable for Students

Sometimes students assume that if something appears online, especially if it is shared widely, it must be true. Fact Check Explorer helps students slow down and investigate claims rather than simply accepting them.

Using this tool helps students practice important skills such as:

• Questioning online information
• Identifying reliable sources
• Comparing evidence from multiple sources
• Recognizing misinformation or misleading claims

These are foundational media literacy and research skills that apply across all subject areas.

Claim Investigation Classroom Activity

One simple way to introduce the tool is through a Claim Investigation activity.

Start by presenting students with a statement that has circulated online. This could be a statistic, headline, or viral claim related to a topic you are studying.

Then guide students through these steps:

1. Ask students whether they think the claim is true, false, or uncertain.
2. Have them search the claim using Google Fact Check Explorer.
3. Students review the fact-checking article connected to the claim.
4. Students summarize the conclusion and explain the evidence used to support it.

Afterward, students can discuss:

• What evidence was used to evaluate the claim
• Why the claim may have been misleading
• How the information spread online

This activity helps students see how fact checking actually works.

Fact-Check the Feed Classroom Activity

Another engaging option is a Fact-Check the Feed activity.

Students often encounter questionable claims in social media posts, videos, or screenshots. Instead of simply warning students about misinformation, teachers can guide them through the process of verifying it.

Students can:

1. Choose a claim they have recently seen online.
2. Search the claim in Fact Check Explorer.
3. Record whether it has been investigated.
4. Summarize the findings and the sources involved.

This turns digital literacy into an active investigation rather than a lecture.

Tips for Using Fact Check Explorer with Students

To get the most from the tool in the classroom, consider these strategies:

1. Start with simple claims. Short quotes or statements are easier for students to search.
2. Model the process first. Demonstrate how you search and read the results before asking students to try it independently.
3. Focus on the evidence. Encourage students to look beyond the verdict and examine how the conclusion was reached.
4. Connect to current lessons. Claims related to your lesson content will make the activity more meaningful.

Helping Students Become Smarter Consumers of Information

Students will continue to encounter enormous amounts of information online throughout their lives. Helping them develop habits of fact-checking is one of the most valuable skills we can teach.

Tools like Google Fact Check Explorer don’t just help students check whether something is true or false. They help students learn how to investigate information responsibly. That’s a skill that will serve them well far beyond the classroom. Be sure to check out more digital literacy resources from TCEA on our Technotes Blog.