Using Keywords 2

Published on: Author: cxyz

WALT – WAre Learning To…

  • use “quotation marks’ and synonyms to search more exactly on the internet,
  • use AND, OR and NOT to help us get better search results.

WILF – What I‘m Looking For…

  • that you can clearly identify what information you want to find,
  • that you can group keywords to narrow your search,
  • that you can try other similar words to get better search results,
  • that you can use AND, OR and NOT to further improve your search results.

Making keywords work for you

We know that searching the internet for a single keyword will find millions of results. Adding more words finds fewer sites that are closer to what you need. If you put words that belong together (such as a phrase, a full name, or words of a song) in quotation marks, the search engine will look only for where these words appear together.

Task 1

  • Search for mullet. What do you find?
  • Search for mullet fish. How many results do you find?
  • Search for “mullet fish”. How many results do you find?

Task 2
If you cannot remember the name of a song but you remember a line from it, enter the line in “quotation marks” into a search engine.

Download this activity sheet and do the quiz: What song is that? Word | PDF

Task 3
Sometimes you can improve your search results by using synonyms. For example, enter child, children, kids, boys, or girls for information on children.

Explore the changes in results when you vary the way you search for endangered tigers. See how on your activity sheet. (Using Synonyms)

Let’s play cards using AND, OR and NOT

Let’s divide our class into half – two groups. We have two games to play. Group A will play Game A while Group B plays Game B. then we will swap.

Game A
In pairs, take a pack of playing cards. Use this Challenge Sheet. Take turns to read each other one of the challenges. When  you complete the challenges on the sheet, takes turns to create more challenges for each other until time is up. This game requires you to eliminate options from the data set according to the instructions.

Game B
In pairs, use the app Guess Who on the iPads. This requires you to eliminate options from the data set according to the information provided by asking questions.

Now let’s see how we can use the strategies of these two games to help us with our internet searches. Watch this video to learn how.

Direct Link

Remember how Arnold’s Mum in Can I Keep Him, eliminated pets by using NOT!

Boolean Searching

Searching with the operators AND, OR and NOT is called Boolean Searching. The video above explained clearly about AND and OR but let’s see how Google handles NOT.

Direct Link

Task 4

Now it is your turn to try out Boolean Searching to find some recipes for a Healthy Eating campaign.  Remember to make use of all the search strategies we have discovered, when they will help your search. These are:

  • Multiple, specific, descriptive keywords
  • Synonyms
  • “Quotation marks”
  • Expand your search using AND
  • Look for 2 words at once by putting OR between them. (OR must be in upper case for Google.)
  • Put a minus sign (-) before a word to show that you do not want it included.

You will be recording your results for each final search and the person with the lowest number of results for each will win a prize!

Return to your activity sheet for more details of this activity. (Boolean Searching)

Assessment

Task 4 will provide students with opportunities to demonstrate that they can:

  • clearly identify what information they want to find,
  • group keywords to narrow a search,
  • try other similar words to get better search results,
  • use AND, OR and NOT to further improve search results.

For the Teacher

Australian Curriculum Links – Learning Objectives

Digital Technologies

  • Explain how developed solutions and existing information systems are sustainable and meet local community needs. (ACTDIP021)

Resources and Acknowledgements