Google Applications

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/educators/activities/Search_GoogleGame_kwatkins.pdf



Wading through the 6-12 resources, I was disappointed to see no resources specific to mathematics. I decided to explore a resource touted as assisting kids with using google as a search engine. This reminds me of a final project I assigned to my Honors Precalculus class last year ~ students were given a prompt and a rubric and were supposed to write an essay relating to one topic they learned about during the year, specifically exploring a real world application of the given topic. We spent almost a week and a half in the computer lab (including "final exam" days) where students were to work on this THREE page paper. Students were able to carry over some of the research skills they were able to pick up in English IV, but most of them could not navigate through a Google search page! I constantly heard my students calling out "Mr. Bartha, this is too much! I can't find anything on this subject." When I was looking over some of my students' shoulders I constantly found search items such as "trigonometry" or "precalculus." No wonder they were unable to find pertinent information! When I solicited the assistance of our school's librarian, he went into a long lecture to the students about "Boolean" and "non-Boolean" search engines. Needless to say, my kids still did not know how to use the basic features of the Google search engine by the end of their project.

The lesson plan I selected was the most applicable to my discipline (math) that I could find (I had to search general resources). Yes, this lesson plan is very basic, but with what it is trying to teach, it does not need to be fancy. If anything, this resource emphasizes and reminds educators that we cannot assume that our students know the skills that we take for granted (without any kind of diagnostic, of course). This PowerPoint presentation runs through the basic features of Google search nicely, and a lot of the general information works on most search engines. Students need to hone the basic skill of sorting through google searches by categorizing searches, excluding searches, making searches more specific, etc. The features are basic, but they are worthless unless students know how to use them! In fact, most people I know (students aside) would not be aware of all of the modified searches one can perform on a search engine. This lesson plan will assist students wade past that frustrating point when they search for a school topic and receive over a million hits. Rather than guess and check and click through hundreds and hundreds of web pages before they find the right one (and let's not kid ourselves, most would merely click through every one until they find information that is appropriate to the assignment), why not allow the computer to do the busy work that is already in the system? Let's get in the heart of research assignments. Too many times we are stymied by the tools that we are using rather than gaining valuable real-life experience using the correct web pages.

This lesson plan probably would not require an entire class period; however, a quick workshop style lesson before an interdisciplinary research assignment would be its most appropriate use and would save your students a tremendous amount of time.