The document provides guidance on how to effectively conduct online research for an inquiry project. It outlines important criteria for evaluating website authority, objectivity, accuracy, currency and coverage of information. Key strategies discussed include using Boolean search terms, quotation marks, understanding domain extensions, and evaluating the author's credentials and expertise. Major search engines are listed for finding reliable information.

1. Today we are going to learn about how to do an inquiry based research as a class. While doing inquiry based research, we have to keep few things in our mind so that we can achieve the target without getting much deviated while checking out sites for research. Based on this criteria it will be easier to find the information we need. It is like skimming the needed information out of abundance of web-pages that might appear if searching casually . Keeping these important things in our mind, we can find what we are looking for and also keep our focus on the desired information. First of all, when searching, it is a good idea to use Boolean terms:

2. Use of Boolean Terms: - And - Or - Not Use of these terms will help eliminate unnecessary web pages that we mostly see and get confused with. It is like selecting and deselecting information, eg: polar bears and panda bears(both), polar bears or panda bears (either), polar bears not panda bears(only polar bears) , now once done we will look at:

3. Use of “ Quotation Marks ” - for words to appear in the order 'you' specified Usage of “QM” will help us to find the exact same word we are looking for eg. “polar bears” this will further minus the presence of other animals in a web page-in other words you will see the pages that are more exclusive to “polar bears”: now let us move on to the website extensions information:

4. Know your extensions: . org – (stands for)organization .com/ .co – company .sch – school (used outside of US) .k12 – most US school sites .edu – US higher ed .gov – US government (add country code for outside US) .ac – higher ed outside of US usually used with country code, example, “.ac.uk” .net – network .mil – US military Now lets talk about the authority of a web page:

6. Currency * 'Is the page dated'? * 'Can you find when was the last update'? * 'Are the links current and do they point to existing pages'? Once you know that web page is current one you need to check if the page contains enough coverage / information on the topic, in this case about 'polar bears' which is our mutually selected search topic for now:

7. Coverage * 'Is the information even relevant to your topic'? * 'Do you think it is useful to you'? * 'Does this page have information that is not found elsewhere'? * 'How in-depth is the material'? Next we need to look for the objectivity of the given information, we have to look if the material is free from any bias!

8. Objectivity * 'Does the information show a minimum of bias'? * 'Is the page a presentation of facts and not designed to sway opinion'? * 'Is the page free of advertisements or sponsored links'? http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/bear-essentials-polar-style http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/polar-bear/index.htm As we will explore these pages further- based on the given/ or discussed criteria, we will find out why one is preferred over the other! Now lets talk about the accuracy of information given on web pages:

9. Accuracy * 'Is the information reliable and error-free'? * 'Can you find when was the last update'? * 'Is there an editor or someone who verifies/checks the information'? * 'Is the page free of spelling mistakes or other obvious problems'? Based on the information we will try to find the animal of our choice in one of the search engines but first we have to search for the engines that help us find what we are looking for:

10. List some major search engines: http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html I find the first web page very helpful while searching for myself – others are listed as follow, I also look for the Canadian content for Canadian Point of View for specific searches: http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest http://www.tekmom.com/search/ http://dir.yahoo.com/regional/countries/canada/education/ http://ca.altavista.com/

11. Things to remember : Find the work you need !- try paraphrasing/use your words Copy and paste is stealing - not acceptable Citation - is giving credits to those who worked hard Plagiarism – is theft /say no to it Your work is original – get it copyright Copyright – all rights reserved Creative commons – some rights reserved

12. Before we do anything further, I want you to explore one more website just to be sure based on the criteria what we just did. Once divided in small groups and having discussed with your peers we will then discuss our findings as a class and move on to our next research : http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthedeathlyhallows/mainsite/index.html

13. My Sincere Thanks To : http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/pdf/evalmidd.pdf http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/evalelem.html http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/pdf/evalteacher.pdf http://www.tekmom.com/search/ http://www.lib.vt.edu/instruct/evaluate/ http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/ii-information-literacy-quiz-answer-key/ http://dir.yahoo.com/regional/countries/canada/education/ http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest http://blog.archive.org/2010/02/03/black-history-month-and-famous-banjos/