Developing a Topic and Obtaining Background

Information for a Science Exit Project

8th Grade Science – Session 2 of 8

Focusing Questions

• How can teachers guide students to identify topics of interest for the Exit Project?

• How can teachers guide students to use internet search engines effectively to find information for their background research?

• How can teachers help students determine if the information they find is suitable for their needs?

Instruction

Framing Our Work• The first step of the Exit Project

procedure is crucial to overall project development.

• Students should choose a topic of interest that encourages investigation.

Teaching

• A good place to begin is to ask: “What do you wonder about in the natural world of science?”

• Make a list of general topics.

How can you get your students excited about an Exit Project idea?

Teaching

• Observations – Motivate students to use the five senses– Science Exit Project journal– Wonder Wall

• Science Curriculum

For more observation strategies, see the Making Observations PowerPoint on the Participant Agenda

More strategies for getting students excited about an Exit Project idea

How can we find reliable resources on the Internet?

After a topic is chosen:• Brainstorm key words• Use a search engine• Evaluate the website

Teaching

Guided Practice

• Let us practice searching the Internet:– Topic: Tigers– Go to Google and type in the word Tiger– What do you think will happen?

As expected, over 200,000,000 hits!

Let’s brainstorm key words that will help narrow the search results

• Key words– Siberian – Behavior– Habitat– Zoo

Let’s try our search again using some of the key words: i.e Siberian tiger + behavior + zoo

This search helped to narrow the amount of information.

What should we look for when we are evaluating Web site content?

• Authority• Accuracy• Objectivity • Current Information

See the Web site evaluation form linked from the Participant Agenda

All website addresses that may be used for the background research should be saved into favorites. Click on Favorites and then Add to Favorites…Then click OK to add to your favorite list.

Using the Website Evaluation Worksheet

• Look at two different sites about the same topic: Gerbils.– http://my.athenet.net/~hoffmann/biog4.html

– http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pets_gerbilcare

– How reliable is the first site? The second one?

Getting Started

• Let us practice the strategy – Identify a topic– Brainstorm key words– Search for a site– Evaluate the site

Work Time• If you do not have a topic in mind, look at the first

three sites for the Siberian tiger + behavior + zoo search.

• Use the Evaluation Worksheet to assess the each site for authority, accuracy, objectivity and current.

Share•How can you help students search effectively?

•How useful is the Evaluation Worksheet?

• In addition to the worksheet, how can you help students determine which websites are reliable?

• Today we learned how to use technology to support the first step of the Science Exit project process. Students should:– Choose a topic of interest– Use key words when searching information– Evaluate the reliability of Web sites

Review

What did we notice?