Today, information is more accessible than ever before.   As the Web continues to expand, it plays an increasing role in our research.  With this wealth of information readily available, you must learn to search discriminately.  Not all of the results will be advantageous to your research.  Remember, anyone can publish information over the Web.  This lesson will guide you through sources and tasks that will help you to choose the most credible information.
 

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• Review selected evaluation resources from the Web

• Evaluate selected Web sources for a given topic

• Select a topic, search for information,  and evaluate three Web sources

• Web Articles:  Evaluating Information Sources
• Web Articles:  Given Topic
• Web Articles:  From Student Selected Topic
•  Westmar High School Evaluation of Information Sources

(Copies are available in 102 Computer Lab)

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1st Task: Evaluation Resources
    Several Web sources will help you evaluate information you find on the Internet. Choose at least three of these Web Sites to visit and find out what you should be looking for in a credible information source. Read through the information in each, then proceed to the second task.

2nd Task:  Evaluate Three Given Sites
    Go to each of these sites and evaluate them according to the Westmar High School Evaluation of Information.

            Subject: Melatonin

3rd Task:  Select a topic of your choice.
    Conduct a Web search.  Select three sources and evaluate each according to the Westmar High School Evaluation of Information form.  Copies of the form are located in the box next to the printer in the Media Center's computer room 102.

    Recommended Search Engines
         You may use one of the following or another search engine of your choice:

                Yahoo-   http://yahoo.com
                  Webcrawler-  http://webcrawler.com
                Lycos-   http://lycos.com
                Alta Vista-  http://altavista.com
                  Excite-  http://excite.com
                Infoseek.com-  http://infoseek.com
                Inktomi-   http://inktomi.com
                EINet Galaxy-   http://galaxy.einet.net
                Sailor-   http://sailor.lib.md.us

        The following are multisearch engines:

                Savvy Search-  http://www.savvysearch.com
                Momma-  http://www.momma.com
                Dogpile-  http://www.dogpile.com
                Metacrawler-  http://www.metacrawler.com
                  AskJeeves-  http://www.askjeeves.com
 
 

    After you have reviewed the criteria for evaluation of Web sources, evaluated three given sites, and evaluated three sites of your choice, you will be able to proceed with confidience in choosing credible information sources on the Internet. Your classroom teacher will review your site evaluations with you.
 

    If choose information sources based on the criteria you've learned in this activity, you will retrieve information that will be accurate, authoritive, objective, current, and thorough in coverage.  Such information will provide a valid basis for your next research paper.