I designed this lesson for fourth graders based on their social studies curriculum. They need to know about artifacts and the Powhatan capital of Werowocomoco. So, I told them they were on an archeological dig in Gloucester County, VA when they found a pottery shard and a stone tool. Because of their expertise, they are pretty sure it's from about 8000 B.C. and that it was from an American Indian tribe. They need to find out who the artifacts belonged to and the important place where they were found...etc. When they've found out what they need to know, they have to make a poster to present to the Archeological Institute of America. So we talked about using the internet as a tool to search for information and Google being a good search engine to use.
This was a very hard task for them to do. We didn't even get close to the poster part during the short 45 minutes that I have them. They discovered that searching the internet for information isn't that easy. That if they put in a search for "pottery" they would get all kinds of useless information. At the end of class I asked the kids, what was hard about the lesson...and most said searching was the hardest. And when I asked what they learned, I got some great answers like "we have to be specific when doing a search."
They were all extremely engaged and were psyched when they found a site that would help them in their research.
Wow! I just posted to my blog about my archeology idea, and BAM! you have the same one! I didn't "steal" it! I promise!
ReplyDeleteBut, great idea.
Internet searching with students can be tricky, yes. There is info that is not-relevant, info that is inappropriate (My fave story is about a grade 4 class at a neighboring school that was researching colonial herbs. One group wanted photos of ginger. The did a GIS of "ginger" - can you guess what came up???)
In general, we now use onekey.com (Google safe search) with the students.
Also, students have a tough time understanding that the info didn't come FROM Google. But from a site they found via Google.
They also think that the first thing comes up is the answer that they want, and they want to print it out. They need to be taught to filter through the junk and only save/print/sort the info that is needed.
I've also heard that bing.com does searches that will be more on topic. Maybe try that out for your students?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea Amy! If I was in your class, I think I would enjoy this lesson! Especially since my uncle is from Gloucester. I remember going their when I was younger and finding bullets from the war in his back yard!
ReplyDelete