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For Teachers

Since this site was developed as a teaching tool for educating students about how to search better on the Internet (see About This Site for more details), we have published on this page a list of the lessons, handouts, and other tools that we have used with our own students.

We encourage you to send us your own ideas. If you have created other lessons using our site, or you have suggestions or comments to make about the plans and materials included here, we would love to hear from you. Write to us at teachers@allaboutexplorers.com.

One note about the Treasure Hunts we have included here. On the main page you will see a list of links to the individual hunt pages. These are differentiated so that you may assign different hunts to students with different ability levels. Next to each is a colored dot which indicates the level of challenge:

Basic levelThese hunts contain fact-oriented questions. The answers are relatively easy to locate on the page.
Moderate levelThese hunts contain fact-oriented questions which will take some additional searching or deeper reading to answer.
Advanced levelAdvanced hunts are more challenging and may require students to use inference and logic to determine answers.

 

Lessons

We have developed a series of lessons designed to introduce students to the skills and concepts of good Internet researching. Click the title of the lesson below to see the full lesson plan.

1. Just Because It's Out There Doesn't Mean It's Good

Students go on an Internet treasure hunt to find information about a famous world explorer. They compare information from two different sites to come to a conclusion about whether they can trust all Internet sources.

2. So How Do You Find the Good Stuff?

Students are taught about the difference between publishing a book and posting a web site, emphasizing the selectivity of the publishing process. The “1 – 2 – 3” approach to researching on the Internet is introduced. Students then get a chance to try out the first two steps.

3. Google, What?

In this lesson, search engines are introduced in more detail. Emphasis is placed on the fact that these are collections rather than selections and that there are no humans involved in the collection process. Students explore some search engines to see the differences in results.

4. Where Exactly Am I?

Students learn about how to decode a URL and that it is the address for locating a web page. They also learn how to begin evaluating a site based on the top level domain (e.g. .com, .org, or .edu), as well as a few other tricks for determining the quality of the site.

5. How Could They Be So Wrong?

Students research the correct facts and draft an email to the All About Explorers site webmaster to fix the mistakes they discovered in Lesson 1.

 

Materials

All materials are available in Adobe Portable Document (PDF) format. For PDF documents, you must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. You can download the file at the Adobe web site:

Additional Resources

References

  • Fritz, Jean. Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan. New York: Putnam & Grosset Group, 1998.
  • Great Explorations (series). 22 vols. Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish/Benchmark, 2002-2007.
  • Goodman, Joan E. A Long and Uncertain Journey: The 27,000-Mile Voyage of Vasco Da Gama. New York: Mikaya Press, 2001.
  • Goodman, Joan E. Beyond the Sea of Ice: The Voyages of Henry Hudson. New York: Mikaya Press, 1999.
  • Kline, Trish. Discover the Life of an Explorer (series). 8 vols. Vero Beach, Florida: Rourke Publishing, 2002-03.
  • Matthews, Rupert. Explorer. New York: Dorling Kindersley/Eyewitness Books, 2005.
  • Meltzer, Milton. Ferdinand Magellan : First to Sail Around the World. Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish/Benchmark Books, 2001.
  • Molzahn, Arlene Bourgeois. Explorers! (series). 8 vols. Berkeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 2004-2005.
  • Moore, Christopher. Champlain. Plattsburgh, NY: Tundra Books, 2004.
  • Parker, Nancy Winslow. Land Ho! Fifty Glorious Years in the Age of Exploration. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001.
  • St. George, Judith. So You Want to Be an Explorer? New York: Philomel Books, 2005.
  • Starkey, Dinah. Scholastic Atlas of Exploration. New York: Scholastic, 1993. OP
  • Wolinsky, Art. Internet Power Research Using the Big6 Approach, Revised Edition. Berkeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 2005.