Kathryn Giuffre 8 th gr. Language Arts. You are applying for a brand new job in a company which caters to the needs of middle to high school students.

Kathryn Giuffre

8th gr. Language Arts

You are applying for a brand new job in a company which caters to the needs of middle to high school students. The goal of the company is to provide students with student- tested, reliable websites to enable the company’s clients to become better students. To be hired for the job you must pass a simple research-skills demonstration. The job pays well and satisfies high school technology credits. Are you up for the challenge?

When you have finished this webquest, you will have the necessary skills to appropriately research any topic for a school assignment.

You will know how to navigate the web in a way that is efficient and productive.

You will have done a step-by-step “how-to” guide for searching the net.

You will complete a search of your own to demonstrate your knowledge.

In this webquest, you will be exploring a search engine, inputting specific information and recording results.

Because this quest is designed to familiarize you with the best technique for searching the web, please stick to the assignment and simply put in the searches as you are instructed and do not explore any of the pages—no matter how interesting! You don’t have time.

You will try each of four net searches.

The biggest problem people have with search engines (perhaps) is that they're so good! You can type in a word and within a fraction of a second you'll have 20,000 pages to look at. Most of those pages will not be exactly what you're after, and you have to spend a load of time wading through the 19,993 that aren't quite right.

If you know what you're after, why not start by asking for it as precisely as you can?

Think of all the words that would always appear on the perfect page. Put those in the WITH ALL THE WORDS field.

Think of all the distracting pages that might also turn up because one or more of your search terms has multiple meanings. What words can you think of that might help you eliminate those pages? Put those in the WITHOUT field.

If there's a term with synonyms, either of which might appear on the page you're after, put them in the WITH ANY OF THE WORDS field.

Try each of the searches now, and record how many sites you find.

As you do each search, take note of what kinds of things turn up. Notice that the more specific the terms you include and exclude, the more focused your search.

Step: click on http://www.google.com/advanced_search and type in the first search box next to the words all these words “Atlantis Continent”

Record the number of hits that are returned.

all these words

Click “enter” when done.

Atlantis continent

Step 2: Click onhttp://www.google.com/advanced_search

and type the words “Atlantis Continent” in the first box and the words “-film -shuttle –movie” in the fourth box as shown below:

all these words:

this exact word or phrase:

any of these words:

none of these words:

**Be sure and fill in the chart on the worksheet, noting how the number of results changes.

Atlantis Continent

-film –shuttle -movie

Words hang together in predictable ways. If you type a phrase into the EXACT PHRASE field in Google, you'll be able to locate pages in which those words appear together in that order. This is obviously useful for finding things that have a proper name consisting of several words (e.g., places, book titles, people).

It's also useful when you can remember a distinctive phrase in something you've read, but now need to locate it. What's the rest of the poem that starts with "Jenny kissed me when we met"?

Now try the searches on the next page, remembering to note the results of your search on the accompanying worksheet.

You've heard of a fine public university in the lower left corner of the United States and you want to know more about it. Try this search...

Click on http://www.google.com/advanced_search

and type the words San Diego State University in the box marked Exact Phrase following the example below:

all these words:

this exact word or phrase:

any of these words:

none of these words:

Push enter when done typing. Mark the # of results.

San Diego State University

Click on http://www.google.com/advanced_searchEnter San Diego State University in the top box marked WITH ALL

Continue filling in the search boxes as indicated below. (These are the same as those on your worksheet.)Query # of Matches

You've heard of a fine public university in the lower left corner of the United States and you want to know more about it. Try this search...

EXACT PHRASE: San Diego State University

Write the number of results you get below.

Here's how to search for it badly:WITH ALL: San Diego State University

Here are some more searches to try:

EXACT PHRASE: Bill 602P

EXACT PHRASE: We know he has weapons of mass destruction  EXACT PHRASE: demonstrating genuine leadership  EXACT PHRASE: Jenny kissed me when we met  

The next net is not Google-specific, though you'll find yourself using it often once you get better at Googling.

Often you'll find a terrific page nestled deep down inside a folder inside a folder inside a folder. You suspect that there are other pages you'd find interesting nearby. How to you find them? Trim the URL step by step.

Sometimes you'll get a notice saying FORBIDDEN! Sometimes you'll get a list of files and directories. Sometimes you'll get an web page with more links. Each step back tells you more about where the page came from.

This is also a good strategy to try when a page goes missing (that is, you get a 404 message). Perhaps someone at the site moved the page into a new folder or renamed a folder. Trace your way back to the top and drill down again to see if you can find it.

Click on the link below, and using your worksheet, follow the steps for trimming the URL.

http://www.google.com/advanced_searchStart here:http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/

education/projects/webquests/shakespeare/Hint: you do not need a new web search for each

of the URLs you input, just go back to the search box and delete the piece from the end that is being left off.

Be sure to follow the trim all the way to the end. Record the website URL that finally brought you

to a webpage for the shakespeare webquest.

Once you've found something you like on Google, it's very easy (and useful) to find similar pages. How does Google know that two pages are similar? The details of the inner workings of search engines are a trade secret, but it's safe to assume that it's based on similarities in the words and the external links on each page. All that matters is that it works surprisingly well, especially when you're not sure what key words to look for.

Use the LINK: tool to find more of a good thing. Use it to find pages that are linked to a page that you find useful. Chances are, those pages might be useful to you, too.

And there's always ego surfing: if you've uploaded a page of your own to a public server and it's been there for awhile, find out who else is linking to it.

Suppose that you've discovered Tapped In, an online community of educators, and you're wondering what else like that is out there. Using Google's similarity search will surface a number of sites that are likely to interest you.

Click on http://www.google.com/ Type in the search box as shown below:

How many results do you find? Now type in Complete the two searches below, following

the same procedure.

SIMILAR TO: www.tappedin.org

LINKED TO: www.tappedin.org

SIMILAR TO: kids.msfc.nasa.gov

LINKED TO: kids.msfc.nasa.gov

Now you are ready to prove yourself to the hiring team.

Choose a topic, enter it in a broad search, narrow it down (list three terms to put in the Without these words

Find an exact phrase for a related search Get the URL of good web page for your

search, trimmed to take me directly to where you want me to go.

Give me a similar page Give me a linked page.

Worksheet for each student

http://www.google.com/advanced_search

http://www.google.com

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm

 Beginning1

Developing2

Qualified3

Exemplary4

Score

Narrow search(research topic is the same in both the all

words and without words fields.)

Research topic was not one that could lend itself

to this assignment.

Only general topic is listed

Research topic does not move

far enough from broad to

narrow.Only one word is used in the “without” box.

2 words are used to help narrow the search—

results still too numerous

Search clearly moves from

broad to more narrow, cutting result number to at least half of the original and 3 words are listed in without box.

Exact words/phrase.

Not much evidence of thoughtful attempt

Can see that effort is being

made, however, still seems to need some direction

Can start to see where research is going, but could be clearer

Following research trail is easy. Evidence of topic being narrowed is

plentiful.

Trim URLURL is maxed

with no attempt to trim

URL trims only 1-2 steps

URL trims 3-4 steps

URL trims all the way to

home.

Similar sitesDoes not provide any similar sites or linked sites

Produces only one similar siteAnd one linked

site

Shows 2-3 similar sites

and 2-3 linked sites

List of similar and linked sites is impressive.

Clearly student has necessary

skills to navigate a

search on the net,

Now that you have completed this quest you are fully qualified for the job advertised in the beginning of this quest.

More importantly, you have the skills to assist your friends, family, or even strangers who may seek your advice when attempting research on the web.

Knowledge is power—use it wisely and give generously of your knowledge to your tasks. People are counting on you.

Further, if you have some deeper knowledge than has been explored or developed in this quest, please share it with the designer so that I, too, may become more powerful.

This webquest is designed to help students to become proficient users of the web for research. Students learn how to refine their searches by excluding particular words, using exact phrases, trimming down URLs, and finding similar and linked pages.

This webquest was designed for middle school students in grades 6-8.

The following standards are used in this lesson: 

The student writer will: 8.W.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.  8.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.  

WebQuest.org (2007). Department of Educational Technology

http://webquest.org/

WebQuest Garden

http://questgarden.com/search/

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/searching/fournets.htm