Students often think they can find "everything" on the Web through their favorite search engine and that this is all they might need for their research papers and projects. Use this lesson plan to expose students to the benefits and the challenges of using search engines to locate information.
Note: There is also an accompanying assignment to this lesson, Searching for Information on the World Wide Web.

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

• Compare 2 different Internet search engines
• Apply basic evaluation criteria to a Web page

INSTRUCTOR PREPARATION

1. Review the other lesson plans and assignments covering QuickStudy Module 5 for complementary use with this lesson.

2. Book a computer lab for class session.

3. Consider using U of M Library guides and handouts for this lesson plan and assignment. Contact the U of M Librarian that is responsible for providing instructional support for your subject for suggestions on which guides are most useful. A list of Librarians who do instruction for Humanities and Social Sciences subjects is available at http://wilson.lib.umn.edu/lrn-librarians.html. If you are in other disciplines, send an inquiry to AskUs at http://infopoint.lib.umn.edu.

STUDENT PREPARATION

1. Have students complete QuickStudy Module 5: Finding Web pages.

2. Ask them to meet in the computer lab for the class session.

LESSON PLAN
Note: This lesson could be easily adapted to an out-of-class assignment

1. Students count off by twos and work in pairs at each computer work-station.

2. #1 pairs are assigned to use the Northern Light search engine ( http://www.northernlight.com).
   #2 pairs are assigned to use the Google search engine (http://www.google.com).

3. The class chooses a research topic (For demonstration purposes, choose two-word phrases for better searching topics for this exercise, such as eating disorders or lunar eclipse). Decide as a group the exact search phrase that will be entered into the search engine.

4. The student pairs then enter this search into their respective Internet search engines.

5. Discuss the results with the class. You may want to draw a chart on the board with Northern Light in one column and Google in the other.

6. How many "hits" (number of retrieved items) did the students get for each search? This should be posted at the top of the list.

7. Are the retrieved items ranked (answer separately for each search engine you used)? Can you tell from the search engine if the hits are listed in any particular order?

8. Have the students take a look at the first 5 hits of their search. How do the titles/content/purpose of these first 5 differ between the two search engines?

9. For each search, are there any Web pages the students would use in a scholarly paper? Why or why not? Use the accompanying worksheet [START: Evaluating the Credibility of World Wide Web] with evaluation criteria.

10. Can the class agree on which search engine retrieved the most useful items for their particular search?

11. Students can then search for Web pages to use with their particular research topic. Ask the students to jot down their search strategies and any comments or questions they have.

12. Next, have the librarian build on the students' own searches and questions in a workshop on building effective search strategies in Internet search engines.

Adapted from " Go for the Gold"

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