Teach Someone Something

How to Research Great White Shark

        I decided to complete a tutorial on how to research information using my school's online resources. My intended audience is for my upper elementary students (2nd - 5th grade) as they are beginning to create their own presentations of information they search for. This past year in first grade, I worked with my students on their typing skills and researching books in the library database - Destiny and myON. They made great progress and were independently searching for books they wanted reading based on their interests. With this tutorial, I wanted to go the next step and begin showing students how to navigate an online database such as TexQuest Navigator, National Geographic Kids, and Britannica School Elementary.

        As our Technology club sponsor, I was able to work with students from 1st-5th grade on creating their Multimedia Fair projects. While they were in the process of brainstorming ideas, I had many students get ideas for presentations, then only search a basic term in Google and select the first thing that appeared. Most of them wanted to show me a Wikipedia article because it was the first result, but we know Wikipedia does not contain the most reliable information. I sat down with these students and showed them how to decide which information was authentic, using our school's online databases. These students knew how to access Rapid Identity, but they weren't sure of which resource to choose for their projects because there were so many to choose from. Their project also required they properly cite their sources, so it was essential to show them how these resources produce citations. 

        My hope with this tutorial video is that students get an idea of information that is acceptable to utilize in a research assignment. When they utilize the school's online databases, they are becoming familiar with authentic information and hopefully will be able to discern whether a website is credible or not, when using a search engine such as Google. I chose to research the Great White Shark, this animal always seems to capture students attention and my class this year was very interested in learning more about their features. 

        Research Tutorial Video: Great White Shark        


References

Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.) White shark. Britannica                                                                                           School. https://school.eb.com/levels/elementary/article/white-shark/602043 

Follett Destiny. (n.d.). Los Encinos Elementary School Catalog. Corpuschristi.follett.destiny.com.                      Retrieved July 3, 2024, from
          https://corpuschristi.follettdestiny.com/cataloging/servlet/presenttitledetailform.do?                                     siteTypeID=-2&siteID=&includeLibrary=true&includeMedia=false&mediaSiteID=&bibID=
          419140&walkerID=1720310080251

Schreiber, A. (2008). Sharks! National Geographic Society.                                                                                     https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/DIFMJB706429946/NGMK?u=j178904&sid=bookmark-                            NGMK&xid=838ccc0f&pg=18

Whatcha Think? (2023, June). National Geographic Kids, 32.                                                                                 https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/QFWPVT168640062/NGMK?u=j178904&sid=bookmark-                            NGMK&xid=54a06475

Comments

  1. Christy G.July 6, 2024 at 7:53 PM

    Nice post and video!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Valley Book HavenJuly 21, 2024 at 12:32 PM

    Great video explaining how to be careful to find information through a reliable source! This explained to the students how to use what they have in their school library which makes it extra valuable because they are using the school's database. I also liked how you told them to look for "great white sharks" and not just "sharks" since it will then lead them to a broad search.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Valley Book HavenJuly 21, 2024 at 12:34 PM

    Great explanation on how to use the school's database for finding resources that are reliable and also accurate. Your step to step explanation was well done. I also like how you specified the importance of searching for "great white shark" instead of just the word "shark" as it would lead you to a broader search result.

    ReplyDelete

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