Life Cycle of a Frog Notes

• Research question: What are the stages in the life cycle of a frog?

• Underline information that answers your research question

• Use a bulleted list to write down information from the article that answer your question. Notes do not have to be complete sentences; use correct spelling.

Example: Life Cycle of a Frog

• Start with dictionary. Look up “frog”• Write down the definition • Home -- Find an article about your topic – use suggested

search term. • Write down the magazine or encyclopedia article title. • Source: Where was this article originally published?• Subject Terms: How does the database describe this

article? Write two subject terms down.• Abstract: Read the abstract. Does this answer my

research question? (e.g. What are the stages in the life cycle of a frog?)

• Does the article pass the five finger test?

Proceed to Go!

• Read your article

• Print your article out

• Underline information that answers your research question

• Write your notes

Warning!• Research isn’t easy! You may find lots of articles

that don’t answer your question or are too difficult to read, or on a completely different topic than what you are researching.

• You may find no results at all!

• It is your job to figure out how to find the information you need, and throw in the imaginary recycling bin information that you don’t need. Good researchers are resilient researchers and expect to try multiple strategies before they find what they need.

Getting Started!Your Name:_______________ Your Topic: _________________Your Research Question: (What do you want to know about when you finish this project?)________________________________________________

Dictionary

Home

Use the dictionary at Searchasauras Kids. For example, if you are researching the life cycle of a frog, look up “frog”. Write down the definition of your word here: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Click on “home”. Write your suggested search term in the search bar. 1) How many results do you get? ___________________________Choose one of the first ten results. 2) What is the title of this magazine or encyclopedia article?_______________________________3) What is the source of your article? (Where was it originally published?)____________________________________

4) How is your article described? Write down two subject terms

I read the abstract Yes No

Does this article answer my research question? Yes No

Yes No5) Does this article pass the five finger test?

If yes, print the article out!

Next week … you’ll underline the information that answers your research question. You’ll take notes from the article. You’ll start exploring other sources such as websites and books!