General Research Starter Pathfinder

 

 

First things first - All About Copyright

 

What makes a good topic?

 

Think about something more than a "report" on a topic.

Turn your topic of interest into a thought-provoking question

 

Ask yourself:

 

Does it have to do with the assignment - the subject?

 

Is it rich enough?

Can you find enough information on it?

If the encyclopedia only wrote 1 paragraph......you may need to broaden your topic

 

Is it narrow enough?

 

Brainstorm possible topics that interest you..................

 

Use a graphic organizer like Inspiration to help you organize your thoughts

 

Try the Internet Public Library IPL

 

 

Finding Information:

 

Use the encyclopedias:

For general, overview information on your topic

 

New Book of Knowledge - grades 3 and up

Grolier Multimedia - grades 5-12

Encyclopedia Americana- grades 11-12 and up

 

 

Use Books - access the SCS Destiny Catalog for books in our library and access to reviewed websites

 

Use the "expensive" web

These are databases available to you as a student at SCS through COOL TOOLS

including:

the encyclopedias listed above

ABC-CLIO (see the library for login info)

 

CultureGrams ... explore the culture of countries around the world.

Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia ... multimedia online encyclopedia ...  for home access link, click here.

Encyclopedia Americana ... online encyclopedia, primarily text based for comprehensive and in-depth research.

New Book of Knowledge ... multimedia online encyclopedia for grades 3 and up.

United Streaming ... online library of streamed videos, images and articles.

Vermont Online Library ... full text of over 3000 periodicals and newspapers.  Includes General Reference Center Gold, Health and Wellness Resource Center, Business and Company Resource Center, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.  For a more detailed description click HERE.

Vermont Online Library - WILSONWEB ... an online database of periodicals and newspaper articles (note, see link below if attempting to access from outside of SCS).

 

Free websites (see the Destiny Catalog to start)

 

Things to ask yourself when you find a website using Google or another search engine:

 

Who wrote the pages and is the author an expert?

What does the author say is the purpose of the site?

When was the site created and last updated?

Where does the information come from?

Why is the information useful for my purpose?