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| Similar to Web Quests, but with a difference; these are very open-ended research quizzes in which the student is not given specific web addresses to search. |
Search Engine TipsAs you are working on the Search It Out! web quizzes, it is very important that you understand the basics of how to use a search engine. So, let's just take a moment to go over some very basic ideas of search engines, and how you should use them.Do I have to ask a question? No you don't. In fact, asking a complete question might produce less helpful information. For example, if you are doing a web quiz that asks What famous music group produced a CD entitled: "Songs of the Civil War & Stephen Foster Favorites"?, and you type in that entire question, you only get a couple web pages, and neither of them answers the question! Why is that? Because the search engine looks for a page that contains every word in your query. And a page that talks about that particular CD wouldn't necessarily include the words: famous, group, or produced. So sometimes less is much better. Instead of typing an entire question, how about typing the following: Songs of the Civil War & Stephen Foster Favorites! What if I want to find a web page that has a complete phrase? That's a good question! Let's say for, example, that you're working on a web quiz that asks In what mountain range would you find both Cranberry Peak and Avery Peak?. If you just typed in: cranberry peak, you might get pages that talk about the peak season for cranberries! Since you want information just about Cranberry Peak, you can type the following: "Cranberry Peak". When you include quotation marks like that, you're telling the search engine to give you web pages that contain that entire phrase. If you try it both ways, you'll see that the second method (with quotation marks) gives you far fewer results! How Important Is Spelling? Very important! Suppose you wanted to answer the question List three "nicknames" by which coffee is often known. So you type into the search engine: cofee nikname, and you only get a handful of pages (written by people who can't spell any better than you can!). However, if you type: coffee nickname, you get much more reliable sources, and more to choose from! One nice thing about Google, though; if they think you made a spelling mistake, they'll suggest another search query with the proper spelling. How Can I Narrow Down The Number Of Results? It's possible to get way too many search results. Suppose you were trying to answer the web quiz question Name three modes in which music may be written. so you typed modes as your search query. You would get over 350 million results, and many don't have anything to do with music! So add in another word: music modes. That narrows down your choices to 25 million pages. You could narrow it down even more by typing music modes written.
Unless otherwise noted, Search It Out! quizzes are written by Douglas Twitchell. For information on using this site in a classroom situation, please visit the About page.
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