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Learning how to search online

Page history last edited by Jennifer Verschoor 12 years, 4 months ago

 

Source: Web Search Engine Boolify


Overview: This lesson will help teach students basic Boolean logic.

Purpose: It is important that educators teach students about the use of Boolean logic to refine web searches.

Objectives: Students will learn about three different Boolean operators: “and”, “or” and “not”. Students will see models of the operators, and then translate their modeling into a visual search engine (Boolify).

Website: http://www.boolify.org

Activities:

  • Spend several minutes describing  Boolean logic to students, including “and”, “or” and “not.

 

  • Model the difference between Boolean operators by asking:

 

  • AND
    • All students wearing blue jeans stand up
    • All students wearing blue jeans AND who are girls stand up
    • All students wearing blue jeans AND who are girls AND with a name that starts with “A” stand up

 

  • OR
    • All students wearing blue jeans OR t-shirts stand up
    • All students wearing blue jeans AND t-shirts OR caps stand up

 

  • NOT
    • All students wearing t-shirts but NOT jeans, stand up
    • All students who are boys and NOT wearing sandals, stand up



Have the students reflect on the combinations. Can they make up a new combination, so that only a desired person stands up?

Then, jump to the website, Boolify. Describe that a search engine works the same way.

  • For instance, if you want to find all web pages with “dolphins”, you can search for just “dolphin”.
  • But, that also brings up pages about football. How would you eliminate those results, with NOT? (dolphins NOT football)



Further ideas:

  • Have students work in pairs, pick a favorite topic (i.e. a favorite animal, band, sport, food, etc.), and search for pages related to that topic. One student should propose keywords, and the other suggests Boolean operators to limit and refine the search results.

 

  • Have students model Boolean logic on the web, recording the number of results to illustrate how they limited or widened their query, and finally got relevant results.
  • Have students tell you their research topic (if applicable) and explore their thoughts about how to generate searches that will get them detailed, relevant information.



Wrapping up:

  • Have students share the results of their activity or favored topic (above) and talk about how the use of “and”, “or” and “not” changed their results. What combination worked best? Why?

 

  • Spend several minutes discussing how these exercises relate to the research students are doing for class work.

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