Step 4: Use of Information
Extract Important Information by Selecting Relevant Details
Do you copy and paste information from a website during research? How will you fit all of that information in your final slides presentation? You don't need to copy everything down. Use your Questions and the What I Know Statements to help guide you during your note-taking. Summarize what you find. Make a list. Note any important evidence.
Read the information on the How to Take Notes handout. This handout provides an example of a note-taking chart, and it will also model the type of information and details that you'll need to document:
How to Take Notes with a Note-Taking Chart Example
Research Reminders
Use the digital note-taking card and citation sheet when documenting important information.
Remember to summarize and paraphrase the information.
Your final research project will be a slide presentation. You cannot paste long text passages onto slides. You must paraphrase and summarize! Using bullet points can help when taking notes.
Use the research questions listed on your research planning handout to assist you in guiding your research and to help you note the discovery of new information.
Time to Research
Each topic contains 6 suggested online websites.
The first four links will provide a description, background information and history, evidence, testimonies, etc.
There's also either an interactive website or video available to increase your understanding or knowledge of your topic.
The sixth website offers an opposing viewpoint or alternative explanations of the mystery.
Unsolved Mystery Topics with Suggested Research Links
Big Foot/Yeti
For more than 400 years people have reported finding footprints of an astonishingly large human in the western United States and throughout the world. Real or hoax? You decide.
Suggested Links:
Forensics Expert Says Bigfoot Is Real
Top 10 Most Credible Sightings of Bigfoot
North American Wood Ape Conservancy
Bigfoot DNA Test Proves Hairy Creature Exists, Genetic Researcher Says
Video: Bigfoot Yeti: Meet Science (4 minutes)
Opposing Viewpoint:
Was it a Yeti? Hair DNA Reveal Monsters' True Identities
Loch Ness Monster
This alleged sea animal, identified neither as to a family or species, purportedly inhabits Scotland's Loch Ness. Is there such a sea monster in existence?
Suggested Links:
Mystery of the Loch Ness Monster
Interactive Site: The Best of Loch Ness: Experiment with Sonar
Video: The Legendary Loch Ness Tale Revealed (2 minutes)
Opposing Viewpoint:
Bermuda Triangle
In the Atlantic Ocean, bounded by the island of Bermuda; Miami, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, is an area where planes and ships have been known to disappear without warning. The U. S. military insists it's all coincidence. But what do YOU think?
Suggested Links:
The History Channel Bermuda Triangle
Gale's Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained
The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
Was the Bermuda Triangle Dangerous?
Video: The Bermuda Triangle (3 Minutes)
Opposing Viewpoint:
Norwegian Scientists Claim They Have Cracked the Bermuda Triangle Mystery
Easter Island
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean sits a collection of huge stone carvings. The Easter Island Moai have been the subject of speculation for centuries. How did the native people move and carve all that stone? And why?
Suggested Links:
Easter Island: Face of Mystery
Ancient Origins: Easter Island
Interactive Site: Explore the Island Interactive Map
Opposing Viewpoint:
Easter Island: Mystery Solved?
UFOs-Aliens
If we study the history of the sightings related to UFO, we would come across many things that indicate a whole world of unknown truths. Still, nothing can be said for certain. Examining all the evidence, there are numerous accounts of sightings, photographs, etc. But are these reliable?
Can you distinguish between fact and fiction?
Suggested Links:
Do Aliens Exist? Most Compelling Evidence Available
Exploring the Abduction Phenomena
Interactive Site: Aliens in the Milky Way Interactive Site
Opposing Viewpoint:
NASA Engineer Debunks Online Alien Sightings
Mary Celeste
Can you solve the mystery of the Mary Celeste?
Unravel the strange story of the brigantine ship, the Mary Celeste, which was found mid - ocean abandoned.
A great mystery begins...
Suggested Links:
Mary Celeste: Ghost Ship Mystery
The Smithsonian: Mary Celeste - The Abandoned Ship
What Happened to the Mary Celeste
Video: The Mystery of Mary Celeste (8 min)
Opposing Viewpoint:
The Mystery of Mary Celeste - Solved?
Atlantis
In about 360 B.C. the Greek philosopher Plato wrote about the city of Atlantis and its destruction. People thought it was just a nice story until the 1800s, when a scholar announced that the city might actually have existed. People have been trying to find it ever since. Was Atlantis real or not?
Suggested Links:
Lost City of Atlantis Found in Spain
Does a New Theory Pinpoint the Lost City of Atlantis?
The Lost City of Atlantis: Fact and Fable
Video: Atlantis Found (12 min)
Opposing Viewpoint:
The Top Six Theories About Atlantis
Stonehenge
Stonehenge, in many peoples' minds, is the most mysterious place in the world. This set of stones laid out in concentric rings and horseshoe shapes on the empty Salisbury Plain, is, at the age of 4,000 years, one of the oldest and best preserved structures on Earth.
We know almost nothing about who built Stonehenge and why. Will you be the one to finally solve this mystery?
Suggested Links
Stonehenge: Mystery on the Salisbury Plain
Debunked: Photos that Reveal When Stonehenge Was Built
Video: Studying the Mysteries of Stonehenge (5 min)
Opposing Viewpoint:
We Have Cracked the Mystery of Stonehenge