Become an Internet Search

Master

By Mr. King
based on resources from kathleenamorris.com
How good are your Google skills?

We’ve all searched for things on Google. Searching is easy. But doing a good search?
That can be tricky. You need to know:

● What search terms to type in

● Which search results apply to your question
● Which results are providing reliable information, and
● How to use the information you decide is good
Luckily there are five steps to help you with all of
this!
 Let’s take a
look at those,
one step at a
time...
Step 1: Clarify
Clarify

Take a moment to think about the question…

What information am I actually

looking for?
Let’s say I’m doing a report about eagles.

What information am I actually I want to learn how big eagles get,

looking for?
what they eat, how old they live to
be, and a few interesting facts
about them to share.
Step 2: Search
Search

Now that you know what you’re looking for, the quality of the search terms you use will
determine the quality of the results you get.

What are search

terms?
Search terms are the words you
type into Google when you want
to search for something. Give
some thought to the search
terms you use, and you’ll get
better results!
● Start with simple search terms, using important keywords:

● If the results you get don’t look like what you want, change your search terms and get more specific.

What do I mean by “If the results don’t look like what you want”? Let’s move on to Step 3 and talk
more about that...
Step 3: Delve
Delve

“Delve” is another word for “investigate”. In this case, it means that you have to look
closely at your results, to see which ones actually provide the information you need. Take
a look at the next slide to see the results I got when I searched the term “eagles”.
Album? This is about a
rock band called The
Eagles!
Philadelphia? Scores?
NFL? This is about a
football team called The
Eagles!

Band? I wonder what

this one is about.

This one is harder to figure

out. But it says “if he plays
all 16 games”, so I think it’s
also about the football team.
Remember when I said this?

● If the results you get don’t look like what you want, change your search terms and get more specific.

Let’s see what our results look like now...

 That looks MUCH more
like it answers our
original question…

What information am I actually

looking for?

I want to learn how big

eagles get, what they eat,
how old they live to be,
and a few interesting facts
about them to share.
You can also change your results by using a plus sign before words that must appear on the page, and a
minus sign before words you don’t want on the page...

Let’s see what our results look like now...

Now we see some results
that answer our question,
and some results that
don’t.

You have to use a variety of

strategies to get to the
results that answer your
question.
Step 4: Evaluate
Evaluate

Now that you have results that look like they are about the right topic, you have to
evaluate them. That means you have to decide which ones are providing good, reliable
information.

You can start by looking carefully at each item in the list.

Website title
URL
Opening text
Evaluate

It’s always a good idea to look at the green URL, and especially the domain. The domain tells you who is
hosting the website. In this case, the domain is cornell.edu. Cornell is a famous university. Domains that end
in .edu are always going to be schools of some kind, and domains that end in .gov are always going to be
government sites. Both types have a good chance of providing reliable information.
It’s also good to check multiple sources, to see if you’re finding similar information.

From onekindplanet.org:
From nationalgeographic.com:

There seem
These is some
to difference
match, so the
in these,
information
so you should
is probably
probably check
reliable.
a third site.
 Don’t believe everything you read. Use your best
judgment. If it sounds fishy, check it against another
site.

Eagles typically grow to be as large as an elephant. Some can even grow to be as large as a house!

Most eagles live about 35-40 years. Some eagles, however, have lived to be over 350 years old!

Really? A bird that’s as big as a house and over 350 years old? That doesn’t sound true to me. I
should check other sites to see if anyone else has the same information.
Step 5: Cite
Cite

Once you’ve searched for sites and found a few sources with reliable information, the final
step is knowing what to do with that information.

For example…

Would this be ok?

Of course not!!!!

Copying text that someone else wrote and pasting it into your own work is called
plagiarism. It’s not just a bad idea, it can even be AGAINST THE LAW,
if the text is copyrighted!!!
Cite

That last one… “Provide Links you have referred to” is what step 5 is all about. When
you cite a webpage, it means you are giving credit to the person who created it.

Remember the very first slide in this presentation?

Become an Internet Search
Master

Hey! Look at
that!

By Mr. King
based on resources from kathleenamorris.com
Are you ready to practice? Remember your five
steps...

Here’s an
challenge for you...
Which of these sites are real, and which have fake
information?

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus All About Explorers

zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ www.allaboutexplorers.com

Dog Island
thedogisland.com/
ALL of those sites were fake!
ALL of those
How many sites
didwere
youfake!!
get?
How many did you get?
In Conclusion...

These five steps can help improve your internet research skills, but ultimately, it’s up to
you to THINK about what search terms to use and how appropriate your results are. If
you’re ever not sure about a site, ask an adult like your parent or teacher.