Internet Searches: Finding What You Need
A unit module for 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students.

Objectives: 

Students will be able to use basic internet search tips and strategies to increase the success of their own internet searches.

Introduction:

The Internet is a vast resource of immeasurable information. Research shows that the known Internet is growing by more than 10,000,000 new, static pages each day. Finding what you need in this exploding mess of information not only proves to be challenging, but can also be a gigantic waste of time. If finding what you need quickly is important to you, then follow this activity and learn some basic web searching tips that will make research easier and save you time.

Directions:

Visit the following site on basic internet search tips and strategies: Basic Search Tips
Review the basic search tips for making a refined search.
Complete the guided activity to reinforce the basic search tips you read above.
You will use the search tips you review and practice to create a refined search for given topics.

You will need to open another browser window for this activity. You will be switching between this page and Google to execute different searches and document information.

Mac Users	PC / Windows
Hold your button down on the link below and select “Open Link in New Window”	Right Click on the link below and select “Open in a New Window”
WWW.GOOGLE.COM

Background:

For this lesson we will be doing Internet searches on the musical band The Beatles. It is rumored that one of the members of this world famous band is actually an imposter. Some people believe that Paul McCartney, a popular band member, died during the height of The Beatles fame. Rather than dissolve the band and end the multi-million dollar sales the band produced with each album, a look-alike replacement would be found for Paul. They would keep this a secret and continue making millions. Some people believe the remaining band members felt very guilty about hiding Paul's death from the world but would lose everything if they revealed the truth about what the greedy record company had done. To try and let the world know without getting in trouble, they began to place clues in their albums. These clues are now available on many websites and we want to see them first-hand to try and determine if the rumors are true!

Guided Practice Activity:

Step 1: Seeing how big the mess is!

Many people do Internet searches by simply typing in the main word or name of the topic they want to research. This is the least efficient way to find anything on the web. We will do our 1^st search in this fashion to illustrate the problem.

- Switch windows to Google and type Beatles in the search window.

- Look in the upper right corner of the screen and document how many pages it finds that fit your description. It will say “Results 1-10 of about...”

Step 2: Using the “+” command to narrow your search.

As you can see, there are quite a lot of pages on the Internet about Beatles. The problem is we don't know if they are on the band we want, different members of the band, or insects and bugs. By adding a + key followed by a word, we are instructing Google to only show us pages about Beatles that have the word Paul on them.

- Switch windows to Google and type Beatles +Paul in the search window. (Be sure to not include any space between + and Paul.

- Look in the upper right corner of the screen and document how many pages it finds that fit your description. It will say “Results 1-10 of about....” It should have decreased from your previous search.

Step 3: Using the “-“ command to get rid of information you don't want.

The minus key can be used to help eliminate information you know you don't want. While in step 2 we told Google to only show us pages that were about Beatles and had the word “Paul” on them, it does not guarantee they will be not be about bugs and insects and a guy named Paul. To eliminate any possible pages about bugs we will use the “-“ command to eliminate any bug related pages. This tells Google not to show us any pages with the word “Bugs” on them.

- Switch windows to Google and type Beatles +Paul –bugs in the search window. (Be sure to not include any space between - and bugs)

- Look in the upper right corner of the screen and document how many pages it finds that fit your description. It will say “Results 1-10 of about...” It should have decreased from your previous search.

Step 4: Using the quotation marks to find exactly what you are looking for.

Finally, using an exact phrase or sentence can help narrow your search down dramatically. There are many fan sites and places selling Beatles music on the web. We know we only want to find sites that contain information on the clues the Beatles supposedly put in their albums. To help us, we are going to use quotation marks. By adding the words “album clues” in quotes to our search, we are telling Google to only show us pages that have those exact words, in that order, on the page. We should get a dramatic difference in our search return.

- Switch windows to Google and type Beatles +Paul -bugs “album clues” in the search window.

- Look in the upper right corner of the screen and document how many pages it finds that fit your description. WOW! You should notice a dramatic difference.

Assignment:

Now that you have seen the benefits using the +, -, and “” commands can have on the effectiveness of your searches, it is time to write some of your own. For each search description listed below, write out the search command you would enter to have the most efficient search possible. 1) A search on famous quotes about democracy. 2) A search on social habits of cats, but not calico cats. 3) A search on American fairy tales that start with the words “Once upon a time”.

Write your search commands on a sheet of paper and hand in for credit.

Rubric:

Exemplary 4	Satisfactory 3	Developing 2	Revisit 1
The student demonstrates a mastery of all search tips reviewed. The student produces 3 appropriately refined searches.	The student demonstrates understanding of search tips and their use. The student produces 3 refined searches for the given topic with only minor errors.	The student incorporates some search tips in their search keywords. Some but not all of given topics have valid search terms.	The student has not successfully incorporated any of the search tips in their refined searches. None of the given topics have appropriate search terms.