CyberSmart! : Lesson Plans : Smart Keyword Searching

Smart Keyword Searching

Download Student Activity Sheet(s) for printout in PDF Format

Overview
When you know the specific information you need, keyword searching is the most effective method of searching on the World Wide Web. Students learn strategies to increase the accuracy of their search. They compare the number and kinds of sites obtained and make inferences about the effectiveness of the strategies.

Objectives

		Use more than one word and synonyms to refine a search
		Make inferences to explain search results

ISTE^® National Technology Standards

Performance Indicators # 8, 9 and 10

Site Preview

		Google
		AOL Search
		AltaVista
		Yahoo!
		AllTheWeb

Online Resources

Visit sites providing background information on The Nuts and Bolts of Searching.

Materials

		Activity sheets (3)
		Online computer access

Introduce (offline)

		Have students discuss the following scenario: You and a friend are a team playing a computer game. Your friend, who has never played before, must hold the controls. How can you help your teammate make the best moves?
		Help students discover that the more precisely they word their directions, the more skillfully their teammate will navigate the controls.
		Draw parallels between the above scenario and Internet searches: Only the search engine software can sort through a database of web sites. However, you can direct the search engine by carefully selecting commands.

Teach 1 (offline)

		Distribute the activity sheets.
		Have students read and discuss the first paragraph. Explain that a search engine roams the World Wide Web examining sites, indexing the information it collects, and sorting through the index based on the commands submitted at its own Web site.

Teach 2 (online)

		Have students read the next paragraph, under "More Words Are Better," and follow the directions to go online.
		Assign students, individually or in groups, to link to one search site and complete the activity sheet. Make sure students can find the number of Web pages retrieved, the location of which varies from search engine to search engine, although it is always located somewhere on the first search results page.

Teach 3 (offline)

		Discuss students' answers to the questions under, "More Words are Better." For each search engine site, have students report their results and inferences to the class. Students' should observe that, in general, the more keywords they submit, the fewer sites will be retrieved and the more likely it is the sites will have the information they want.
		Have students share their answer to "Looking at the Numbers." Students may infer that a search engine first finds sites have all the search terms, then only two of the terms, and, finally, only one of the terms, They may also infer that search engines look for sites in which these terms are close together or in the same order submitted. NOTE: Although every search engine works differently, all these strategies are used by one search engine or another.
		Have students share their answers to the questions under, "Use Synonyms." Although search results will vary, many students will infer that the word "colonizing" was more effective at retrieving sites about human habitation on Mars, while "living" retrieved many sites about the possibility of other life forms on Mars.

Close (offline)

		Ask: Why are more words better than one when submitting a search? (More words return less sites that are closer to what one needs.)
		Ask: How does using synonyms help when submitting a search? (A synonym for a word may bring better results than the word itself. )

Extend (online)
The following activity can be added for students who completed this lesson in a previous grade:

		Have students conduct a search on a topic of their choice utilizing plus and minus sign commands in combination with search words.
		Have students type a plus sign (+) in front of any keywords that must appear in the sites retrieved. The more keywords added, the more specific the results will be.
		Next have them type a minus (-) sign in front of keywords not wanted in the sites retrieved. This strategy will also limit the number of sites retrieved.
		Make sure students type a space before the sign but not between the sign and the word it modifies (for example, +mercury +element -planet -car).