Grades Six, Seven and Eight have one lesson each week in this subject. There is an urgent and growing need to equip students with the skills to become thoughtful, ethical, and smart "digital citizens" through hands-on projects, problem solving, role-play, and peer-to-peer learning that call on critical thinking, ethical discussion and decision making. Students explore the norms of appropriate, responsible, behavior with regard to technology use. They explore “information literacy” by learning how to find, retrieve, analyze, and use online information. These practical skills are vital, and research shows that they are lacking in most young people. Finally, students will learn skills to critically evaluate and creatively produce media—not just the printed word, but visual and audio media as well. They gain the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms. They explore the concept of Media Literacy in depth, critically interpret the powerful images of a multimedia culture, and express themselves in multiple media forms. They use critical thinking skills to evaluate the daily assault of media messages and to learn how to become positive participants in the dialogue of their day.