Activity #2 Creating a Search Strategy
Objective
Students will understand how to identify the key concepts of a research topic in order to execute more effective searches in online catalogs, databases, or on the Web.
Procedure
1. Have students view the video clip entitled Talking to Databases. It demonstrates how to set up an effective search in Academic Search Premier (an EBSCO database). Students can also be asked to read Brian's Search Strategy Advice.
2. Reinforce the video by stressing the importance of developing a good search strategy.
3. Explain Boolean logic by using the example on this site [PDF] or use one of the Boolean logic links in the Additional Resources section.
4. Show students how to take apart a thesis by using one of the completed search strategy worksheets.
a. Demonstrate how concepts listed in each column should be synonyms or related concepts.
In one worksheet example children and preschoolers would be in the same column since they define a similar group; children and television would not be in the same column because you can’t substitute one term for the other in a sentence. Children and television are not terms for each other.
b. Demonstrate how concepts can be broader or narrower. In the second worksheet example, media is a broader concept than television. Cable television would be a narrower concept than television.
c. Explain that sometimes students will only need two main concepts to search effectively, but sometimes they will need three or four concepts.
5. Explain truncation and how putting a wild card character at the end of a root word will give them more results. For example, preschool* will give them preschool, preschooler, and preschoolers.
OPTION: If you have time, give students a list of five or six words and ask them to demonstrate how the word would be truncated. Sometimes students like to put the wild card at the end of all words or to truncate the word too early. For example, putting a wild card at the end of teenagers (teenagers*) wouldn’t help much; putting it at the end of teen* would make a big difference in their search results. You can refer students to Tips for Truncation from Jason.
6. Ask students to fill in one of the blank concept sheets [PDF] for their own topic. Review the concept sheets individually with the students and make suggestions on how they might adjust their search strategy.
7. Remind students that this is a worksheet and is designed to get them started. As they do actual searches in a database or an online catalog, they will discover that some search strategies will work better than others. They will also get ideas for additional terms by reading the abstracts of the articles and/or by looking at the subject headings for book records.
Group Work Alternative
After students try to complete their own concept sheet, have them join with two or three other students. Give them a few minutes to offer each other suggestions for improving the worksheet.
Then have one person in the group write down all of the topics and their associated concepts on a large piece of paper. Have students post the sheets at the front of the class.
Provide feedback on a few of the search strategies or quickly go through all of the search strategies for the entire class.