How do you find information about raccoons on the Web? You use "search engines," starting points, ask an expert, and sites bookmarked by your teacher.

Search Engines

A search engine indexes Websites. You type in words or phases and a list of sites is returned about your topic. Sometimes the list does not give you what you expected. Try different words and phrases until you find information about your topic.

Search engines use different methods for searching. You will want to look at the directions and tips at each site for complete details.

Choose the Best Search from NoodleTools

Activity:

Google
http://www.google.com

1. Go to Google.
2. Click on Advanced search.
3. Type raccoons in the "all these words" search box.

4. Print the first page of your results.
5. Next type raccoon habitat in the "with the exact phrase" box.

6. Print the first page of your results and compare the two searches.

YahooKids
http://www.yahookids

Searching with YahooKids is like searching a directory.

Activity:

1. Go to YahooKids.
2. Type raccoons.

.
3. Print the first page of your results.
4. Describe the results.

Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com

Dogpile and other meta search sites let you ask several search engines at one time. They retrieve the top hits. This can be a time-saver. However, there are occasions where sites are duplicated several times or useful information is not retrieved. Experiment and see how it works for you.

Activity:

1. Go to Dogpile.
2. Type the word raccoons.

3. Print the first page of your results.

Starting Points

Starting points are places where specific topics have been searched and links created. Many includea description of the Website.

Activity:

1. Go to these sites and find information about raccoons.

The Electronic Zoo
http://netvet.wustl.edu/e-zoo.htm

eNature
http://www.enature.com/

2. What kind of information did you find?