Google Scholar Exercise

Google Scholar Exercise (Interactive)

If you haven't already read it, please view the Google Scholar Visual Guide before reading about this activity.

In order to teach my students how to use Google Scholar, I've created an interactive activity. In this activity, I try not only to teach the technicalities of how to run a Google Scholar search, but also how to interpret the results, how to judge the sources, and how to access the works returned by Scholar. I reserve a computer lab for 20 or 30 minutes. I have my students log into the computers, and navigate to Google Scholar with me. I explain how the search function works. Then I run a test search, and explain the results. My students then try it for themselves as I circle the classroom to provide help. (The Google Scholar Visual Guide linked above tells you all about searching using Scholar.) The handout I give students is below on the left.

Topics

1. Abstract Expressionism

2. Ansel Adams

3. Bauhaus

4. Column of Trajan

5. Daitoku-ji

6. Farnsworth House

7. Fauvism

8. Frank Lloyd Wright

9. Georges Seurat

10. Jackson Pollock

11. Kimono

12. Michelangelo

13. Ming gardens

14. White ground lekythoi

15. Zaha Hadid

Sources to Locate

1. 3 relevant articles

a. Provide complete citations (author, date, title, journal, volume, location)

b. Write a sentence explaining your articles’ relevance (read abstracts to confirm relevance)

2. 2 books at Auraria library

a. Provide author, date, title, location and call #

b. Write a sentence explaining relevance

3. 2 books at local libraries (not Auraria)

a. Provide author, date, title, location

b. Write a sentence explaining relevance

In the Course of your research, you should consult

1. Google Scholar & JSTOR/Another database

2. Auraria library’s catalogue

3. WorldCat.org

NAME TOPIC _____

ARTICLES

1. CITATION:

RELEVANCE:

2. CITATION:

RELEVANCE:

3. CITATION:

RELEVANCE:

BOOKS AT AURARIA LIBRARY

1. INFORMATION (author, date, title, location, call #):

RELEVANCE:

2. INFORMATION:

RELEVANCE:

BOOKS AT LOCAL LIBRARIES

1. INFORMATION (author, date, title, location):

RELEVANCE:

2. INFORMATION:

RELEVANCE:

Students choose one topic from a variety of choices, and run a search for the term(s). As mentioned in the Visual Guide, terms should be searched "in the title of the work" in order to have relevant results returned.

As you've seen (and can see below), the results of a Scholar search most often provide a summary of the source linked. Students can read these to get an idea of whether the source is relevant. However, they may need to link to databases like JSTOR in order to read abstracts. You will probably need to explain to your students how to read an abstract to determine if an article is relevant. The Google book previews often include 'abstracts' about the books as well.

While my students are running their searches independently or in groups of 2, I walk around the classroom to help them along. Google Scholar is foreign to most (if not all), and is difficult to navigate at first.

Google Sites

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