Sourcecheck

You are handed a claim and a limited number of tabs to open. Each lookup you spend reveals a piece of evidence that either supports or undermines the claim, with some carrying more weight than others. When you are ready you commit a verdict — and every tab you did not need is worth points.

• Tabs are the only currency. Investigating costs them and nothing refills them.
• Each clue carries an evidentiary weight: some sources are reliable, some actively are not.
• You score for reaching the right verdict, plus an efficiency bonus for unused tabs.
• So being right slowly is worth less than being right quickly.
• The technique is lateral reading — checking what other sources say about a claim rather than reading the claim harder.

• Difficulty: Easy (3 tabs), Medium and Hard (2 tabs) tighten your budget
• Daily: one shared case per day
• Practice: a fresh case whenever you want

• Desktop: click a lookup to open it, then click a verdict
• Phone & tablet: tap lookups and tap a verdict (mouse or touch only)

• Spend the first tab on the source itself, not the claim. Who is saying it usually narrows the answer faster than what they are saying.
• Stop when the weights stop moving. Further lookups that agree with what you already have are tabs converted into nothing.
• An unreliable source is evidence too. A clue with negative weight tells you something real about the claim it supports.
• Do not chase certainty. The efficiency bonus means a confident verdict on three clues usually beats a certain one on six.
• If two heavy clues disagree, look for a third rather than picking the one you prefer — that is exactly the situation lateral reading is for.

Sourcecheck teaches lateral reading, the fact-checker's habit of leaving a page to verify it.

• Skills: media literacy, lateral reading, fact-checking
• Best for: roughly grades 7–12 (ages 12+)
• For parents & teachers: lateral reading, the fact-checker's habit.

Spending a limited number of lookups on a claim, where each reveals supporting or undermining evidence, is information literacy with a budget.

Rationing the tabs is the original constraint.

The limit forces the skill that matters, which is choosing what to check. Verification is unbounded if you let it be, so competent checking means identifying the one claim the rest depends on rather than working through everything.

Sourcecheck is an original free browser game that teaches lateral reading, the fact-checker's habit of leaving a claim to investigate its source, framed as a tab-budget deduction puzzle.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.