research lesson

1. Researching for Information

2. Where can you find sources of
information for schoolwork?
Media Center
• Reference Books
– Encyclopedias
– Non-fiction
Internet
• Websites
– Search Engines
– Destiny
– Reference Sites
– Fact Sites

3. Encyclopedias can give you factual
information for just about any subject.
Encyclopedias usually come in sets, but they
don’t have to.
Encyclopedias
Some encyclopedias are
specialized and give you
information about just one
subject.

4. Encyclopedia Sets
These types of
encyclopedias
contain information
about a large number
of subjects including
people, places,
animals, and things.

5. Specialized Encyclopedias
REF 973 RUB
Use this reference
book to find out about
U.S. Presidents and
their lives.

6. How to Use an Encyclopedia
Use the guidewords
at the top of the page
to locate the subject
you are looking for.
Words are in
alphabetical order
like in a dictionary.

7. For Specialized Encyclopedias…
Use the table
of contents to
find what you
are looking for
and then turn
to that page.

8. Other Useful Reference Books

9. Where can you find reference
materials in the Media Center?
Remember, you cannot
check out books from this
section. You can use these
books while you are in the
Media Center, though.

10. Non-fiction books can
provide great factual
information in an
entertaining way.
You can check these
types of books out of the
Media Center.
Non-fiction

11. Non-fiction
You can find
non-fiction
books about the
Revolutionary
War in the 900’s
of the non-
fiction section.

12. The Internet has an abundant of
information about many things.
Internet Resources
To narrow down
your search for
information, use a
search engine.

13. Search Engines
A search engine is a special tool for web
pages that will help you find information for
projects that you might do at school or just
to find information for fun.

14. Search Engines
You will want to use one
that helps you find
information easily and
leads you to find
information that you can
understand.
It’s important to use more than one
search engine because each one will
bring up different results.

15. Kid-Friendly Search Engines
Kid-friendly search engines are the best to use to
search for some information for schoolwork.

16. Where else can you find information?
You can also search the Media Center’s online
book catalog for books and websites that are
related to what you are researching.

17. On-line Reference Sites
Encyclopedia
Britannica Online
KidsKonnect.com Internet Public Library
For Kids
Kids Port Reference Library Fact Monster

18. Can You Use It?
Once you find a site that has information
you are looking for, you need to
determine if the site is good to use or not.
This is called evaluating a website.

19. Evaluating Websites
There are several things to look at on a
website to determine if you can use it for
schoolwork.
• Author
• Audience
• Content
• Currency

20. Author
• Is the author’s name clear?
• What makes the author an expert?
• What is the author’s educational
background?
• Can you contact the author?

21. Audience
• Is the text easy to read?
• Can you understand the information it gives?
• Does it look interesting?
• Is it easy to move around the site? (this is
called navigation)

22. Content
• How is the spelling and grammar of the
website or web page?
• Is there useful information for students?
• Is the site trying to persuade you to think
or believe a certain way?
• Is the site based on fact?

23. Currency
• Can you find the date the site was
created?
• When was the site last updated?
• Do all of the links work?

24. Let’s Try It
Let’s look at a website and evaluate it using
the four things we talked about.
You can refer to your research page for help.
Save the Pacific
Northwest
Tree Octopus

25. Have you ever seen
this symbol before?

26. You can see the © symbol on things you
find in your classroom, in your home,
at the store, or just about anywhere!
©
©
©
©
©

27. Do you know what
this symbol means?

28. © means Copyright.
Copyright is a law that protects
things people make by making it
against the law for anyone else to
copy that work or use it on their own
without permission of the author.

29. Understanding
Copyright protects things people make or
ideas people come up with such as:
• words
• photographs
• paintings
• songs on the radio
• designs on clothing
• symbols of companies

30. What’s the difference between
© and ™ and ®?
A © protects things that are written down or recorded with
sound and/or video. It has to do with art and books.
A ™ has to do with a word, a name, a symbol or an
invention that helps provide a good or a service. It is used
so that others won’t confuse a word, name, symbol or
device with words, names, symbols or devices that are
almost exactly the same.
A ® is a registered trademark that cannot be copied. A ® is
good for 10 years.

31. What if I need to use something
that has a © for school?
You can use small amounts of text (words)
and individual images (pictures) for your
schoolwork, as long as you tell where you
got them from.

32. How can I use ©ed
information correctly?
If you want to use some information that you find
for school work, you should first read the
information and then retell the information in
your own way.
Think of it like telling a friend about something you
saw on tv or read in a book. You wouldn’t tell them
word for word everything you saw or read. You
would give them a summary of what you saw and
read.

33. What if I find some information that is
just perfect the way it is?
Can I copy it exactly as I see it or do I
have to put it in my own words?
If you find some information that you
want to use word for word you can
quote the author by putting quotation
marks around what you are using as
long as you are using only a small
portion, not the entire piece of information.
“ ”

34. How would that look?
Ferb, I know what we're going to
do today!
(Phineas of Phineas and Ferb)
First copy what you want to say.Next, put quotation marks around it.
Finally give credit to the author who said
it by putting their name after the quote.
“
”

35. What if I want to use a ©ed
picture for schoolwork?
If you make a copy or print a copy of a picture
from the Internet or a book, you should write
somewhere near or on the picture where you
got the picture.
Picture from Microsoft
Clip Art Gallery
Picture from
www.mypanda.com

36. What happens if I don’t tell
where I got my information?
Copying someone else’s creative work for
schoolwork without telling where you got it
from is considered plagiarism.
It’s okay to use information from books and
websites as long as you give credit to the
person who wrote the information you use.

37. What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is a form of cheating similar to
copying answers on a test.
Just like it is wrong to copy someone’s answers
on a test, it’s just as wrong to take credit for
someone else’s ideas at school, whether in
words, or a picture, and no matter whether you
copy the ideas exactly or change them a little.

38. How to Avoid Plagiarism
All you have to do is credit your sources.
That means telling where you got the facts
and ideas you use in a project or report.
This is called citing your sources.
For most school assignments, you will create
a bibliography for the end of your project.
This is simply a list of the sources you used
and information about those sources that you
will give to your teacher.

39. Pictures used with permission by the author.

40. Here’s how to make a bibliography.
For books:
Baker, Lucy, The Secret Life of Bears, New York,
Scholastic, Inc., 1990
For encyclopedias:
“Bears,” The World Book Encyclopedia, 1982, vol. 2,
pages 25-36
For websites:
“Brown Bears” http://www.brownbears.com/about.htm

41. What are the © rules for using
something besides for school?
The rules are different if you are not using the
information for school. You can’t copy
whatever you want to use however you want
whenever you want.
If you want to use something someone else
has made and it’s not for schoolwork,
especially if you want to use it in something
you sell, you must get the author’s permission
to do so.

42. What does all this mean?
If you use somebody else’s work, whether it is
for school or for fun, you should ALWAYS
give the author credit for making it by telling
who the author is and where you found it.
Wouldn’t you want others to do
the same for you?

43. So get started researching!

44. The information contained in this PowerPoint orginally came
from CyberSmart.
http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/home/
CyberSmart is now a part of Common Sense Media. You can
find the free curriculum on Common Sense Media now.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/
The clipart in this PowerPoint comes from
Microsoft Clipart Gallery.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx
References

45. References
“Copyright Kids” http://www.copyrightkids.org/,
1/12/09
“Cyberethics for Kids” http://www.cybercrime
.gov/rules/kidinternet.htm , 1/12/09
“CyberSmart” http://www.cybersmart.org/,
1/12/09
“Copyright with Cyberbee” http://www.cyberbee
.com/cb_copyright.swf, 1/12/09

46. References
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3054/2651672786
_36f5095ea7.jpg , 2/2/10
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1189/545609749_
06b89dd26d.jpg , 2/2/10
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2106/3825436661
_592c2859b1.jpg , 2/2/10

47. “Science Fair Central” http://school.discovery
education.com/sciencefaircentral/, 1/12/09
“Website Evaluation” http://www.marilynarnone
.com/Website%20Investigator%20Tool.pdf,
1/12/09
References