Instruction

Directions

Directions for Using the World Wide Web for Project Research

Print version of "Part 5: Toolkit": PDF • Word

Developing Web Strategies
Although students can find much valuable information through quick keyword searching and surfing from one site's links to others, it is important for students to learn at an early age that organized, efficient searching is an important and useful research skill. Many resources are available to help teachers introduce search skills or fine-tune those skills in students with more advanced search experience. Some teaching possibilities are listed below:
- Review with students the school policies related to Web use.
- Have students research a given topic using a variety of search engines.
- Have students research the same topic using a variety of search strategies, such as searching from a topical directory such as Yahoo, searching an engine like Google by means of Boolean logic, searching from a general website such as the Internet Public Library, searching from a subject-specific site like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other ways.
- Have students compare the results of their various search strategies.
- Have students keep a list of the interesting environmental websites that they find in this exercise
Evaluating Web Sites
Students need to learn early that some sites are reputable research resources, but many are not. Environmental projects offer an excellent context for addressing this issue in the classroom or library media center. Many sites offer guidelines for evaluating websites. Some other sites can serve as examples of inappropriate research sources.
- Discuss with students some of the clues for identifying sources appropriate for school research (e.g., URL suffixes; the tilde symbol "~").
- Give students a list of URLs and have them predict whether the sites will be valid for research; then have them visit the sites to check whether their predictions were correct.
- Have students develop a list of the categories of sites that are likely to have reliable information on the environment (government, academic, professional organization or association, museums, libraries).
- Have them follow up by visiting sites in each category and keeping a list of those they will want to revisit as the project develops.
Keeping Track of Relevant websites
Students should learn how to keep a record of the sites they find valuable so that they can return to them easily.
- Have students use bookmarks/favorites to keep an electronic record of useful environmental sites.
- Have students keep written records of useful sites, including the URL, author/sponsor, and a brief annotation for each site. These records could be in a word processing document, in a notebook, or on index cards. The records could be kept by each individual student or by group, based on the needs of their environmental activity or project.

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