Primary vs secondary sources
Primary sources are original evidence — the study, the data, the interview. Secondary sources describe them, sometimes inaccurately.
AI for Kids · Class 9 · Module 3 of 9
Research, Evidence and Citation
A citation is not decoration. It is you showing your working.
8 sessionsSessions 17–24
4 weeksTypical pace
AppliedLevel
Class 9Artificial Intelligence
The big idea
Students distinguish primary from secondary sources, verify claims back to their origin, and synthesise findings into a report where every assertion can be traced.
Why it matters
These are the exact research standards expected in senior school and university, and they are far easier to build now.
Unpacked
What you will actually learn
Three core ideas, each taught with worked examples and then practised until it feels obvious.
Claim verification
Claim verification means following a fact back to its origin rather than trusting the article that repeated it.
Synthesis
Synthesis means constructing your own argument from multiple sources, not stitching their summaries together.
Did you know?
Citation chasing regularly reveals that a widely repeated statistic traces back to a single source that never actually said it.
Common mix-up
“AI-provided citations save time.” Models fabricate plausible references. Every citation must be opened and confirmed to exist.
Session by session
Your 8-session journey
Sessions 17–24 of the 72-session year, at two one-hour sessions per week.
- 1
Warm-up and big picture
Where this module fits, what you will build, and a hands-on starter that gets everyone curious about primary vs secondary sources.
- 2
Primary vs secondary sources
Guided teaching on primary vs secondary sources, worked through together with the teacher.
- 3
Primary vs secondary sources — practice lab
Independent practice, small challenges and one deliberate mistake to diagnose.
- 4
Claim verification
Guided teaching on claim verification, building directly on the previous two sessions.
- 5
Claim verification — practice lab
Applied tasks that combine primary vs secondary sources and claim verification in one piece of work.
- 6
Synthesis
Synthesis introduced and practised, completing the toolkit needed for the project.
- 7
Project build
Guided build session for the module project: Cited research report.
- 8
Test, present and reflect
Finish, test against the checklist, present the work and explain the decisions behind it.
Project lab
Cited research report
Every module ends with something the student built themselves and can demonstrate. This is the piece that goes into their portfolio and gets explained out loud at the end of session 24.
Try this at home
Take a statistic you have seen repeated online and trace it to its original source. Note how many hops it takes — and whether it survives.
It is finished when
- It works from start to finish without breaking
- You can explain every part of it in your own words
- You tested it and improved at least one thing afterwards
- Someone else used or understood it without your help
By the end of this module
Students finishing Module 3 can:
- Explain and use primary vs secondary sources without prompting
- Explain and use claim verification without prompting
- Explain and use synthesis without prompting
- Build and finish cited research report
- Test your own work and correct what you find
- Talk an adult through what you made and why
Word bank
The vocabulary introduced here, in plain language:
- primary source
- Original, first-hand evidence.
- secondary source
- A description or analysis of primary material.
- traceability
- Being able to follow a claim back to its origin.
Module challenge
Think you have got this?
0 XPLevel 1 · Curious Beginner
6 quick questions drawn from this module — vocabulary, the project you build, and a myth-or-fact round. Every wrong answer explains itself, so a mistake still teaches you something.
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