Before going into the specifics of research writing, you will first determine the basic elements of academic information seeking.
Specifically, you will be able to:
Follow guidelines on how to clarify the information needed
Explore different techniques in gathering information using online search engines
Determine a source’s level of credibility
Observe ethical principles in research writing
Organize information while researching
For each learning task, click on the drop down arrow on the right to reveal the procedure.
Lesson adapted from Morris, K. (2019)
Choose any science topic of your choice. Write as many questions as you can think of relating to that topic.
Make a mind map (concept map) of a topic you’re currently learning about. This could be either on paper or using a free online tool like Mind Map for Google Chrome.
Come up with a list of 3 different questions you could type into Google (e.g. Which country in Asia has the largest population?) relating to your chosen topic. Identify the keywords in each question.
Come up with synonyms for these words using a tool like Thesaurus.com.
When you're done doing the tasks, upload your answers to this form Learning Task 1.
Lesson adapted from Morris, K. (2019)
1. Explore how to search Google using your voice (i.e. click/tap on the microphone in the Google search box or on your phone/tablet keyboard).
Q1. List the pros and cons of using voice and text to search.
2. Open two different search engines in your browser such as Google and Safari. Type in a query and compare the results.
Q2. Do all search engines work exactly the same? Explain
3. Think of something you’re curious about, (e.g. What endangered animals live in the Amazon Rainforest?). Open Google in two tabs. In one search, type in one or two keywords (e.g. Amazon Rainforest). In the other search type in multiple relevant keywords (e.g. endangered animals Amazon rainforest).
Q3. Compare the results. Discuss the importance of being specific.
4. Similar to above, try two different searches where one phrase is in quotation marks and the other is not. For example, Origin of “raining cats and dogs” and Origin of raining cats and dogs.
Q4. Discuss the difference that using quotation marks makes
5. Try writing a question in Google with a few minor spelling mistakes.
Q5. What happens if you add or leave out punctuation?
6. Explore how Google uses autocomplete to suggest searches quickly. Try it out by typing in various queries (e.g. How to draw… or What is the tallest…).
Q6. Discuss how these suggestions come about, how to use them, and whether they’re usually helpful.
You may watch this video from Code.org to learn more about how search works.
7. Experiment with typing some questions into Google that have a clear answer (e.g. “What is a parallelogram?” or “What is the highest mountain in the world?” or “What is the population of Philippines?”).
Q7. Describe how the answers are displayed instantly within the search results — dictionary definitions, image cards, graphs etc.
When you're done doing the tasks, upload your answers to this form Learning Task 2 .
You will be working on just two tasks for this week. The rest of the practice exercises will be assigned for next week.
