Objective: To learn how to search the World Wide Web using Internet Search Engines

Search Engines used:

Altavista: http://www.altavista.com

Infoseek: http://www.infoseek.com

Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com

Excite: http://www.excite.com

Google: http://www.google.com

Teacher/Staff Developer Preparation:

1. Familiarize yourself with the different searching strategies accepted by each of the search engines listed above. Each of these search engines has a help, tips or advanced searching file you can read at their Web site.

2. Whether you are using the hand-out below without any changes, or selecting your own items, search for each of the items on the different search engines yourself to give you a sense of the process your learners will go through.

3. Read about how search engines work, how to plan effective searches and how the top search engines compare with each other at The Spider's Apprentice at http://www.monash.com /spidap.html. Print out any appropriate pages for your teachers/learners.

Lesson Steps

1. Conduct a demonstration of a Web search with the whole group. Discuss what search engines can and can not do for you on the Web. Discuss the differences between key word searching and browsing through subject indexes (i.e. Yahoo). Ask a participant to suggest a topic or item he or she would like to search for. Brainstorm a list of key words, word combinations and categories you might use to find this item using a search engine.

2. Divide the group into four teams. Assign each team one of the search engines listed above. Distribute the handout.

3. Each team will attempt to locate every item on the handout using their assigned search engine. On the handout, they will record the strategies they use to find the items, the name and address of the Web sites where they find them and any other comments about their searches.

4. After forty-five minutes, or when most teams have finished, bring the teams together for a group discussion. Ask the teams to compare the Web sites where they found each item and to discuss and compare the different search strategies they used.