C-2 Internet: how to search?

C-2 How Do We Search the Internet?

Students learn that to conduct effective and efficient online searches, they must use a variety of searching strategies rather than relying on a single source. They will then apply what they have learned to a scenario in which they pretend they are employees in a workplace, searching for information for their job.

Do Now (5 minutes)

TEACHER GUIDANCE:

• • When you search Google, you are actually searching Google’s index of the web, which has been created by sending out software programs called “spiders” that follows links on web pages to create an index of as much of the web as they can find.

  • Google searches its index for the search terms entered, then asks questions to find the best possible results. Some of those questions include: how many times the page contains the keywords, where do the words appear on the page, are any synonyms of the search terms on the page, is the page is from a quality website, and what is the page’s page rank.

  • Search results include a title, a URL, and a snippet of text to help you know if the page will help you find the answer. There’s also links to similar pages and related searches to try next. Occasionally, there will be ads along the top and on the right side of the screen, too.

Mini-Lesson (5-10 minutes)

Ask students: How do you find something online? What kinds of things do you search for?

• • Encourage students to provide examples of searches related to their personal interests, as well as to their schoolwork. The point is to remind students that they spend a fair amount of time searching online for a variety of purposes, both in school and in their personal lives.

Ask students: What are some strategies you have used to search for information online?

• • Guide students to think specifically about searching for information more than sorting or evaluating the information.

Ask students: What do you need to know to make your searches more effective and efficient?

• • Encourage students to think about problems they encounter when searching and would like to solve.

Distribute the Tips for Strategic Searching Student Handout, one per student.

• • Invite different students to read aloud each search strategy on the handout, along with the example provided. Then encourage them to come up with their own examples for each of the strategies.

  • If possible, demonstrate some of the examples, projecting your computer screen so that students can see the search results.

Introduce students to this mnemonic device which lays out the five steps in a search plan, and the steps spell out SEARCH:

• • SELECT research questions and search tools.

    • (Explain to students that they should have one or more questions that get to the core of what they want to find out in their search. They should also choose search engines and tools that are most relevant to what they are looking for.)

  • EXTRACT keywords and terms.

    • (Students should understand that they can find effective keywords by highlighting the key terms from their research questions.)

  • APPLY search strategies.

    • (Students should apply some of the search strategies they learned – for example, adding quotation marks or a minus sign, or specifying what type of information they need.)

  • RUN your search.

    • (Students should run a search on the terms they have chosen and review the results. Remind students that they should check out multiple sources.)

  • CHART your search.

    • (Students can avoid repeating work they have already done by jotting down what they’ve searched for and where they’ve searched for it.)

TEACHER GUIDANCE: This lesson has been adapted from Common Sense Education's Strategic Searching lesson.

Close-Out (5 minutes)

• 1. Discuss the following questions:

• • What are two search strategies you learned about that you plan to use in the future?

    • What are the five steps of a search plan?

    • Why is it important to have a search plan?

TEACHER GUIDANCE:

Standards CSTA

• • CSTA 2-IC-21: Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect people's everyday activities and career options.