Building our Research Skills

This past week we have been focussing a lot on building our ability to research online. Giving the tools needed to research will help set them up for success as they continue to go through their educational journey. 

Researching has the following benefits for students:

• Ability for summarization and categorization. This ability is particularly important at the early stage of research when the students gather information. There are many possible sources. However, a true researcher has to find only the most relevant sources. 
• Critical thinking. The value of research is to find the new knowledge or new conclusions. That is why for the students it is important to be objective. Students must be able to verbalize what they have learned and justify their point of view based on the research.
• Analytical thinking. That is one of the most valuable skills. The person who is able to think analytically can analyze more information at once. They can manage and recall information from different sources. 
• Explanation skills. By researching and becoming experts on a topic students will enhance their ability to verbalize their learning and explain their thinking. 

 Before students could really begin their research project based around Canada (grade 5) and Alberta's (grade 4) history and identity we had to be able to determine if a website was credible and factual. To do this we talked about the important things to look for on a website and why we should look at multiple sources before forming conclusions.

Students learned that websites such as the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada websites will contain factual information, but may have a bias. We learned that wikipedia may not be 100% accurate as anyone can contribute to a wikipedia page, and that while some websites look completely real, accurate and official they may not be. 

Students are now aware that they must question everything online and you can't believe everything you find online.

The ability to properly research also relates to this years School Development Plan, as we work to increase students ability to manage and evaluate information and ideas, and communicate ideas in an informed and persuasive manner.