Teaching kids the art of detecting "BS"

It seems a little hard to explain to students that they need to go online and do research (since that seems to be the only place to do it now adays), but that they shouldn't believe it all. I think that a great activity for them is to tell them to research a generic subject, such as genetic mutation, or something that is a major conspiracy theory, like the 9/11 crashes. Send them out, tell them to locate anything that they find of interest on the subjects. When they come back, they can present their findings to the class. With the conspiracy theories, they could show the rediculous information that is out there on the different ways that it could have happened (though some are more credible than others).

After demonstrating to them that there is a lot of bad information out there it is important to show them that there is good information, and how to discern it as such. I would like to provide them with some websites that provide credible information, such as Wikipedia. In addition, show them ways to locate credibility, such as researching the person who wrote the article, or looking for accredidation for the article that they have found. Is the person who wrote it a credible source, what education do they have, what proof of that education do they provide??? Just like anything in English, we need to teach our students how to think for themselves and to discern things that may seem strange or new. Once they know how to think critically about their research in the classroom, they should be able to transfer that knowledge elsewhere.