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.

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.

 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

BFRO and Bigfoot

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

Legend of Nessie

Loch Ness Folklore

The Legend of the Loch Ness

Interactive Site: The Best of Loch Ness:  Experiment with Sonar

Video:  The Legendary Loch Ness Tale Revealed (2 minutes)

Opposing Viewpoint: 

Proof LochNess Does Not Exist

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

Secrets of Easter Island

Easter Island Mysteries

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

National UFO Reporting Center

UFOs:  Sightings and Claims

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:

The Truth About Mary Celeste

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

The Lost Continent Atlantis

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

Stonehenge Facts and Theories

Debunked:  Photos that Reveal When Stonehenge Was Built

Why Was Stonehenge Built?

Video:  Studying the Mysteries of Stonehenge  (5 min)

Opposing Viewpoint:

We Have Cracked the Mystery of Stonehenge