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Workshop 2: Finding information
- 1. Finding information • Communication •Keywords • Search tips
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- 4. Have a go: •In your groups choose a famous person • Think of 5 words (not phrases) to describe them • Note these on flip chart paper
- 5. Key topics Detail Broader topic Differentspellings Related topics Synonyms Refine Abbreviations/Initialisms/Acronyms
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- 8. • Key topics •Detail • Broader topic • Related topics • Synonyms • Different spellings • Abbreviations etc • Refine
- 9. Broaden: riot ORprotest Broaden: riot* Exclude: London riot NOT football Exclude: London riot -football Phrase: “London riots” Get answers: Define: riots http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/EPQ/SearchTips Smarter searching
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Editor's Notes
- #2 Librarian will need: Drawing exercise A4 paper Pens Flipchart paper ‘Workshop 2 V2: Refining your search’ worksheet This workshop is all about keywords, the words that you will use to find the information that you need. We’ll be: Exploring the importance of communication when searching for information Devising a set of usable keywords/search terms that you can use to search for your topic Learning how to use resources to further develop your keywords Discovering how search tips can help refine your search results. By the end of this section: You should have keywords/search terms that you can use to search for information An understanding of how you can refine your search First exercise is all about the importance of communication and the importance of using the right words…….this will help you when you start searching for information for your EPQ: Put students in to pairs. If odd numbers use teacher. Sit back to back. Give one student the image. They are the communicator and should not show the image to the other student. The other student is the drawer. Give them a piece of paper and a pen. The communicator has 3 mins to describe the image to the drawer who cannot ask any questions. Stop after 3 mins and ask the drawers to hold up the image that they have drawn. Correct image is on next slide.
- #3 Use of meaningful words is essential to communicate your ideas and the same thing can be described in lots of different ways – PacMan shape could also be described as ten past four on a clock face or a cake with a big slice taken out on the right hand side! When searching for information: It is important to use the right keywords to find what you want. The words you use are very important and can make all the difference. If you don’t use the right language or words then you won’t find what you need. You will need to think beyond the obvious keywords i.e. the words in your essay title for example, to ensure that you find as much information as possible. To get you thinking about keywords and how you can use them to describe something, we are going to do a quick exercise (describe what will happen): Divide class in to small groups Give each group some flip chart paper and a pen Each group should think of a really famous person and come up with 5 words (not phrases) to describe that person. I’ll show you an example in a moment. Each group will share their keywords with the rest of the class in turn. The idea is to make is as easy as possible for the rest of the class to guess who your person is – if they guess straight away, then you have chosen good keywords to describe them. They will have 5 mins for this task.
- #5 And this is who my famous person is, if you didn’t already guess. – Marcus Rashford, Man United and campaigner for food parcels for school children not able to access free school meals during pandemic. Ask class: What other words could I have used to help you guess the sports personality? Philanthropist Children Meals Lockdown England Hampers Poverty FareShare – food waste charity who MR teamed up with to deliver meals to children in greater Manchester who were no longer receiving free school meals. MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) Charity Forward – playing position in Man United Hunger Homelessness Activist/Activism Start exercise. Live workshop: Hand out flip chart paper and pens. After 5 mins, ask each group to hold up their flip chart paper for everyone else to see. Everyone tries to guess who your famous person is. If class does not guess the famous person, then spokesperson tells us who the person is and then class discuss what keywords might have helped them guess the famous sports star. Move on to next group. Repeat. Before we move on to the real thing, reiterate the importance of thinking about keywords when searching. The better their keywords, the better the search results.
- #6 Lets start thinking about your topics, so that you can come up with useable keywords. (Click for animation) Think about: the topic – its useful to break your topic down in to a small number of concepts…….what are the keywords to describe each concept? Detail…….what things do you want to focus on Broader topic…….think about the bigger picture. This might help you set the scene, provide background information etc. Related subjects: are there other subjects that you need to consider when you search for information that will add to your work – what is relevant, what isn’t? Synonyms i.e. different words that mean the same or almost the same e.g. synonyms for riot might include civil unrest, protest, rampage, fracas, uproar, commotion, disturbance, brawl etc Different spellings: some words can be spelt in several different ways such as the word jewellery or fairy, also Americanisms….organisation (UK) and organization (US). Abbreviations/Initialisms/Acronyms Acronym: an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word e.g. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Abbreviation: a shortened form of a word or phrase e.g. Tribeca (Triangle below Canal Street) – area of New York Initialism: NHS – National Health Service Also think about the things that you want or don’t want which will help you refine your search e.g.: Is your topic world-wide or country specific (region). Are you looking at a specific era, century of the last 10 years for example (Time).
- #7 Finally: As you search for information and read, look out for other search terms/keywords that you could use e.g. civil unrest.
- #8 And more……police, discrimination, gangs, social media, local communities etc. All of these terms can help you find more information or in fact refine your search if necessary.
- #9 Hand out flip chart paper and pens. Create a mind map to help you come up with lots of different keywords that you can use to search for information. If time: Find a partner and tell them about your topic. Your partner will ask questions or make suggestions. Then repeat with partner’s topic.
- #10 You will probably use the Internet as a source of information. The Internet gives us access to huge amounts of information. Need to be able to streamline our search. Introduce ways that we can streamline searches on the Internet: Broaden your search by searching for either keyword which both describe your topic: riot OR protest Broaden your search by finding everything which contains the same bit of a word i.e. truncation: riot* Exclude results containing words commonly associated with your keywords: London riot NOT football Exclude (same as above) : London riot -football Phrase i.e. when the words need to appear together and in a specific order: “London riots” Get answers-use this to get a definition of a word from an online dictionary: Define: riots Lots of other search tips are available at the link on the screen. The next 2 slides show examples of 2 of these search tips – broadening search using asterisk and getting a definition. Hand out worksheet (Workshop 2 V2: Refining your search)……..now have a go at using some of the search tips. If running short of time, then hand out worksheet and ask students to work through it in their own time.
- #12 Hand out worksheet (Workshop 2 V2: Refining your search)……..now have a go at using some of the search tips. If running short of time, then hand out worksheet and ask students to work through it in their own time.
- #13 Most search engines have an ‘advanced search’ feature which will guide you through the process of refining your search. With Google, you just need to carry out a search, then click on the ‘settings’ icon and select ‘Advanced search’ from the drop down menu. You can then specify: Exact phrases and words – to stop Google trying to fix what it thinks are spelling errors. Words to include and exclude Number ranges such as years and weights Language Pages published in a particular region When a page was last updated Search within a particular domain such as .edu, .ac or .org etc.