“Google is not a source. It's a search engine. Say it with me now.”
-- Ms. Laflamme, from the lesson "Evaluating Sources"
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Databases and Reference Sources
Databases and Reference Sources
Conant Library Catalog, eBooks, and Audiobooks
Conant Library Catalog, eBooks, and Audiobooks
Educational Websites
Educational Websites
Brain Pop
iCivics
The Met for Kids
NASA Space Place
PBS Kids
"Ms. Laflamme, is Google a source?"
"Ms. Laflamme, is Google a source?"
I get this question often and I always respond with "Google is not a source, it's a search engine" followed by a discussion about sources vs. search engines. Think of a search engine as an index at the back of a book. Though, typing keywords is much easier than scanning for them page by page. It is convenient that Google displays the beginning of an article in its search results, but Google should never be cited as a source. Instead, you would follow the link in the Google search results to be taken to the actual source. We'll learn more about source types and evaluating sources in our research and media literacy lessons, but for now, just know and remember that Google is not a source.
Citing Sources
Citing Sources
A source of information is where you got your information from. It could be a book, a website, a database article, an interview, a video, etc. To cite your source means to tell people where you got your information. It's important to give credit to people. After all, you wouldn't want someone to pretend your hard work was theirs! We begin to learn about plagiarism starting in first grade, and then build this understanding year after year. We learn strategies for avoiding plagiarism, and, in the older grades, we learn how to cite our sources using a bibliographic tool called *MyBib.
*Note: The MyBib website is only used as a bibliographic tool for formatting citations. Students should not create an account on MyBib.
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