Research involves finding information to answer a question or prove an idea. Before you get started on a research project, your teacher will either assign you a topic or help you choose your own topic.

Once you have a topic to research, you'll need to think about the keywords that are related to your topic. A keyword is a word (or short phrase) that holds the main idea of what you are looking for. Keywords are the "magical clues" you give a computer to find a specific treasure chest of information. Let's say we wanted to know the answer to this question: 

How long does it take for a plastic water bottle to decompose in a landfill?

The words that are the most important to find the right information are: plastic, bottle, decompose, and landfill. These would be our keywords.

Ready to learn more about keywords with some examples? Play the keyword game and help Bob the Bookworm gobble up keywords related to a selection of research topics.

Now that you have a better idea of what keywords are, let's try building a list of keywords related to your own research topic.

You're about to start using your keywords to search for information related to your research topic. When you find something that might be useful, be sure to save it. Your teacher or librarian can help you think about where to save the information that you will be using. You'll need it again later.

Now that you have built a keyword list, you can use your keywords to search for sources that will help you learn more about your research topic. Let's start by searching Britannica School for reliable information. You can find articles written by experts, photographs, and links to other sources on the web. Don't forget to save what you find!

You keep track of the sources that you use in your research in a Works Cited list. The Works Cited list has very specific layout (called MLA9) so that anyone who reads your research knows how to find the sources that you used. We've built a tool to help you get started making your first Works Cited list. Remember how we asked you to save what you found in Britannica School? You'll need that information before you can get started here:

You can also use your keywords to find printed books and ebooks in the AICS Library (using Accessit) and ebooks online (in Epic). Choose where you want to search for books below.

Don't forget to add any sources you find to your Works Cited list!

Before you search the web with a search engine like Google or Duck Duck Go, you should think about how search engines work and what kind of information they provide. While research databases (similar to Britannica School) work with experts to create their content, search engines crawl the web looking for any sites that are related to your search topic. They do not assess the quality or the accuracy of the content on those sites. You want to find reliable information from people or organizations who you can trust. These might include scholars, governmental organizations, academic institutions, or magazines and newspapers with a history of quality journalism, among others. 

In order to learn a little more about searching for reliable sources online, we will use Search Coach in Microsoft Teams. Your teacher or librarian will give you a code to join your Microsoft Teams classroom.

Don't forget to add any sources you find to your Works Cited list!

Now that you've learned a little bit about how to find reliable sources on the web, here are some additional, kid-friendly resources that can help you find information. Would any of these sites help you find information about your topic?

Don't forget to add any sources you find to your Works Cited list!