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About this Kit | Using the Resources in this Kit | Creating Units

How to integrate Resource Kit activities into exisiting lessons

About this Kit

Information Fluency depends on being able to utilize tools of technology to navigate massive amounts of information. One of the greatest achievements of the digital information age in this regard is the search engine. Without this digital workhorse, there would be no efficient way to sift through billions of documents looking for just the right thing.

The problem is that a search engine does exactly what we ask. The real power of the engine rests in our hands: it's up to us to direct in powerful ways. We are required to understand what we ask. Learning to speak the language of the search engine is a start. It understands keywords and operators. It interprets requests literally: how we mean them, not how we say them. There are some exceptions, for instance, in terms of spelling and alternate endings for words, but for the most part, the search engine, by design, understands only what we submit through a search box. That will probably change someday in the future when computers can discern what we mean and not how we say it. In the meantime, it's up to us to choose our words and operators carefully.

This Kit addresses how to translate questions into queries. Topics include:

• Identifying important concepts in questions and assignments

• Translating important concepts into powerful keywords

• Choosing the right number of keywords for a search

• Avoiding stop words and words that make little difference

Using the Resources in this Kit

Resources suited for stand-alone applications

When time permits only one activity, we recommend using any of the following, depending on the objective:

Timed Search Challenges (Using an effective combination of keywords to find information with a search engine)

• Action Zone: 2007 Pump Price Challenge (Self-guided) -- Retrieve a table with the specified data.

• Action Zone: 2005 Pump Price Challenge (Self-guided) -- Retrieve an older table.

• The Buffalo Challenge (Self-guided) -- Find the number of buffalo living in North America today.

• Action Zone: Piranhas (Self-guided) -- Find a fish other than piranhas that is a threat to humans in the Amazon.

• Action Zone: Earthquake Toy (Self-guided) -- Find a toy that models construction principles that can reduce damage from earthquakes.

• Action Zone: Blue Diamond (Self-guided) -- Find the name of a famous diamond that glows red when exposed to UV rays.

• Action Zone: Lego Builder's Challenge (Self-guided) -- Find the names of the winners in a master builder competition.

Tutorials

• Using Keyword Challenges (Teacher-facilitated) -- Teacher's Guide for using Keyword Challenges for classroom instruction and individual learning.

• QuickPick: Questions to Answers (Teacher-facilitated) -- Includes exercises for turning questions into answers, prior to searching.

• Query Checklist (Self-guided) -- A nine-point checklist for building an optimal query.

Action Zone Learning Games

• Keyword Challenges (Self-guided) -- Eight different Keyword Challenges that strengthen critical abilities in search concepts identification initial keyword selection.

• Soccer I (Self-guided) -- Competing against an expert searcher in identifying the important keywords in a Soccer-themed challenge.

• Snowsport I (Self-guided) -- Competing against an expert searcher in identifying the important keywords in a snow sport challenge.

Assessment

• Optimal Query Assessment (Self-Guided) -- This online assessment analyzes students' effectiveness in creating effective queries.

When time permits more than one activity, combine activities into sequences for more powerful effects.

The Internet Challenge Model I (Challenge - Tutorial - Challenge)

1. Start with the Buffalo Challenge to encourage awareness of the difficulty of finding information using problematic keywords.	2. Follow this with either the QuickPick: Questions to Answers tutorial or one or more Keyword Challenges .	3. Conclude with the Earthquake Toy Challenge to allow students to apply optimal query techniques to find information in Google. Compare timed search challenge experiences.

The Internet Challenge Model II (Challenge - Tutorial - Assessment)

1. Start with the Buffalo Challenge to encourage awareness of the difficulty of finding information using problematic keywords.	2. Follow this with either the QuickPick: Questions to Answers tutorial or one or more Keyword Challenges .	3. Conclude with the Optimal Query Assessment to see how well students apply keyword techniques in search problems.

A shorter option includes using one of the tutorials either preceded or followed by a timed Search Challenge

Longer options include following the second timed challenge with another set of tutorials--more Keyword Challenges or the Soccer I or Snow I Sports tutorials. Follow this with a third timed Search Challenge, for example, the Blue Diamond Challenge or the Optimal Query Assessment.

Creating Units

For information on creating larger units in which materials from this Kit are embedded, see Creating Units.