Monthly · February 2027 · S1⏱ 25 min · 👨👩👧 Parent present
📜 Primary Sources
Learn to tell the difference between primary and secondary sources.
🎯 Today's goal: Your child learns one of the most fundamental research skills: going back to the original source.
🔥 Warm Up
Warm Up
If you wanted to know exactly what someone famous said — not what someone else said they said — where would you look?
"That difference is the difference between a primary source and a secondary one. It is more important than it sounds."
🤖 The Activity
Main Activity
📋 Type this exactly
What is the difference between a primary source and a secondary source? Give me 3 examples of each for the same historical event. Explain why primary sources are more reliable for some questions — but sometimes more limited than secondary sources.
📋 Type this exactly
Find me the primary source for this well-known historical quote or claim: [child picks a famous quote or fact they know]. What is the actual source? How do we know it is genuine?
📋 Type this exactly
What is a tertiary source? Where does AI itself sit in this hierarchy — primary, secondary, or tertiary? Why?
🧩 The Twist
Go Deeper
📋 Type this exactly
Has a famous historical quote ever turned out to be misattributed — something widely believed to have been said by one person but actually said by someone else? What does this tell us about how history gets passed down?
Fact-check this. Misattributed quotes are extremely common.
🛡️ Safety Moment
“AI makes mistakes — always check”
AI is a tertiary source at best — it summarises what others have written, which summarises what others wrote, which may or may not have gone back to primary sources. For any historical claim that matters, trace it to a primary source.
📜
Source Analyst Badge 📜
Understood the primary/secondary/tertiary source hierarchy — and where AI fits in it
👨👩👧
Parent Notes
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What they learned
Source literacy — the foundation of all good research.
Questions to ask
What is the difference between a primary and secondary source?
Where does AI sit in the source hierarchy?
What famous quote turned out to be misattributed?
What to watch for
Source literacy is one of the most valuable skills from the monthly programme.
Safety in context
February is a strong month for older children (12-13) in the Builder programme.