Welcome Students!
- In this webquest, you will be exploring using new search engines to get reliable information needed for your Projects. Answer questions in your notebooks.
START HERE:
Watch this video on Search Engines and answer the questions below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGajhs7lPwg
1. What are you actually searching when you do a google search?
2. How does google decide which pages to show you?
3. Does google ever accept payments to promote a website over another?
"Imagine you're visiting a foreign country where you don't speak the language of the natives. You can buy a guidebook and memorize a few phrases, or hope your smartphone can translate for you correctly. You can do what people have traditionally done in such situations, which is to learn how to say, “How do I say...” and point and smile and hope people will be kind to you. Or you can do another thing people have traditionally done, with less success, which is to speak louder, gesture wildly, and hope that volume equals effective communication.
Searching the web is, for most of us, a little like visiting a foreign country. Search engines do not speak English. They don't speak any human language. They're machines. If you shout and wave, you'll probably manage to get something across to them, and you'll certainly get some information back. But it likely won't be what you wanted. To get what you want from them, you'll have to learn to speak their language." Taken from North Carolina Education Digital Literacy k-12 website.
Let's say that you are researching the Shawnee Native American Tribe and you want to find out how they were affected by the Indian Removal Act. Go to Google and do the following search. Compare what websites come up in the search.
1. Native American Indian Removal Act
Note 3 websites that come up in the search
Now search:
2. Shawnee Indian Removal Act
Note 3 websites that come up in the search
Now search:
3. shawnee how were they affected by the indian removal act
Note 3 websites that come up in the search
Answer these questions in your notebook:
1. How did the websites change that came up in each search?
2. Why is it important to change your wording of a search if you don't find what you are looking for at first?
3. Choose one of the searches from above and try putting the keywords into a different order. Does that change the results?
4. Evaluate your search and the results. Was it successful? Can you answer this question adequately using only the information available on the open web? Reminder: Your question is "How were the Shawnee affected by the Indian Removal Act?"
Go on to the next tab in the webquest entitled "Other Search Engines"