1. Effective Search
Strategies

2. How Has Research Changed
with Technology?

3. Step One
O Define your purpose
O Have a clear ? You are seeking an
answer for

4. Step Two
O Find a reliable search engine
O What are some search engines?
O How do you know if it’s reliable?

5. How does A Search Engine
(Like Google) work?

6. Step Three
O Identify and list Keywords
O Words that are important
O Small words or “phrases”

7. Step Four
O Start to analyze results by skimming
O Use Boolean operators to broaden or
narrow your search
O What are Boolean operators?

8. Step Five
O Skim your site results – Learn the 5 W’s
O Who authored the site
O What is the author’s purpose
O When was the site created/updated
O Where was the information found?
O Why is it useful to you (IS it useful)

9. Search Box Strategy
•Enter the words you
think will be in the
documents you seek.
•The search engine
finds the webpages in
its index that exactly
match your words.
•Review the search
results to see if your
words found the
information you hoped
for.
•If your search words
didn't match, you
revise your words and
try again.
Content adapted from Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10. How to Search Effectively
O Look in the right place
O Use the right keywords
O Learning to search effectively
takes time.
OWith practice, however, you can
become an expert searcher!
Content adapted from Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

11. Things to Consider
O Domain addresses
O How are sites filtered?
O Will I get the same results at home?
At school?
O Will I get the same results from a
different search engine?
O What’s the difference between a
search engine and a database?

12. Take a Search Challenge
Today
O http://21cif.com/rkit/actionzone/index.html