Practicing Search

How do we get better? Practice! Two websites offer daily or weekly search challenges to test your creative searching strategies.

A Google a Day: http://www.agoogleaday.com/

• Interesting Google A Day searches:
  • June 8, 2011 - 12,500 bottles cross the ocean: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2011-06-08
  • June 15, 2011 - First American President: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2011-06-15
  • June 17, 2011 - Images: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2011-06-17
    • January 4, 2012 - Earth's highest to lowest point: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2012-01-04
    • April 6, 2012 - Eiffel Tower in WWI: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2012-04-06
    • April 7, 2012 - Secret WWII code: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2012-04-07
    • April 17, 2012 - First White House Library: http://agoogleaday.com/#date=2012-04-17

More Google a Day lessons, connected with the Common Core Standards (presentation slides with explanations and lessons): http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/lessons.html

The SearchResearch blog is written by Daniel M. Russell, the Director of User Happiness and search researcher at Google. He offers a Wednesday Search Challenge and his readers offer their answers and techniques, then he explains the search process to find the correct answer in a post a few days later. They tend to be more complex than the Google A Day questions, but not always.

• SearchResearch Blog by Daniel M. Russell from Google: http://searchresearch1.blogspot.com/

My goal is to create questions for K-6 students (and beyond) that will teach specific searching skills while making it a fun activity to experiment with searching. Students will learn basic search operators, what tools and products are available, and how to filter results, then apply those skills.

• A Search a Week website: https://sites.google.com/site/searchaweek/