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9th-11th Grade

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Learners will be able to evaluate sources for credibility and accuracy to ensure that they can complete research in the library properly.

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Discuss: What are the steps to evaluate your sources and how will you show that you accurately completed these steps?

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Discuss: What are the steps to evaluate your sources and how will you show that you accurately completed these steps?

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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Don't be fooled by digitally manipulated videos | Is This Legit?

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Demonstrate safe, legal, and ethical creating and sharing of knowledge products independently while engaging in a community of practice and an interconnected world.

Learners follow ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by: Evaluating information for accuracy, validity, social and cultural context, and appropriateness for need.

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Go from just searching on Google to RESEARCHING

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Go from just searching on Google to RESEARCHING

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Online research takes skill. In high school, you need to transition from searching for information to researching a topic. When you have to do research, a simple Google search is no longer enough. This is when Google Scholar and library databases can help. We know this transition is challenging and we're here to help.

This video from McMaster University Libraries explains the differences between search and research. Watch to find out more about developing a search strategy, exploring a variety of sources and thinking critically about the information you have found. We like to show this video when we visit high school classes in the city.

In this blog post we expand upon these three strategies that every good researcher knows: how to develop search terms, find multiple resources and evaluate sources.

Developing Search Terms

The secret to good search results is to use the right keywords. By following three easy steps, you can figure out the keywords relevant to your research topic.
1. Think of your question
A good research question guides your thesis. It addresses exactly you want to find out, and gives your work purpose and clarity. This step can be timely, so be patient.

Use Google and Wikipedia to understand your topic.

Focus your question on a single problem.

Make sure it can be researched using primary and secondary resources.

Example
Broad topic: Impact of social media
Thesis: social media has increased loneliness in teens.
Research Question: Does social media increase loneliness in teens?
2. Eliminate some words
Eliminate common and general words, or in other words identify the main concepts in the question.

Important words are generally the verbs and nouns of your question

Avoid relational words like impact, effect, and cause.

Stick to two to four keywords for best results.

Example
Three keywords: social media, loneliness, teens
3. Specify and professionalize
Think of more professional and academic synonyms for your keywords.

Talk to your friends, teachers, parents and librarians to brainstorm.

Make a list to keep track of what you find.

Take advantage of BOOLEAN operators and modifiers to customize your research results.

Example
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram
Loneliness: aloneness, social isolation
Teens: adolescent, young adults, youth

One possible search string: "social media" AND teen* AND (loneliness OR ​"social isolation")
Copy and paste this string into Google to see the difference in results.

Exploring multiple resources

Most assignments from teachers will ask you to use a certain number of sources. Additionally, researchers use different TYPES of resources. This is a a great trick to cross-reference the information to ensure it is accurate.

Explore ​information from different sources such as: government sites, news articles/broadcasts/podcasts, independent organizations.

Look at the website address (the URL) and URLs endings (such as .com, .org, .ca) to identify the type of site.

The variety of information is plentiful; everything from a documentary on YouTube to company websites.

Example
Research Question: Does social media increase loneliness in teens?

Resource Type 1: Youth Health section of Canadian Government Website

Resource Type 2: an article from news source such as The National Post or The Toronto Star

Resource Type 3: reports/data from a reputable Youth support organization such as Youth Mental Health Canada or Here to Help

Evaluating sources

Once you have a bunch of sources, it is necessary to make sure they are good sources to use in your assignment. A gold standard approach, often used in high schools, colleges and universities is the CRAP (a.k.a CRAAP) test. Each letter in the word CRAAP stands for a concept you should be looking for in your source. By applying the CRAAP test to your source, you can check that the information is up-to-date, related to your topic, written by someone knowledgeable on the topic and as free of bias as possible.

Currency: When was this information shared?

Relevance: How does the information fit your topic?

Authority: Who has written this information and are they credible?

Accuracy: How correct is this information?

Purpose: Why was this information shared by the publisher? What's the goal?

More academic resources

To help your understanding of the concepts mentioned above, check out these sources:

How to access TPLs Databases (Blog by Toronto Public Library)

What is Google Scholar? (Tutorial by Western University Libraries)

Developing a Research Question (Video by Western University Libraries)

How Library Stuff Works: How to Choose Keywords (Video by McMaster University Libraries)

How Library Stuff Works: Boolean Operators (AND OR NOT) (Video by McMaster University Libraries)

How Library Stuff Works: Boolean Modifiers "", *, ( ) (Video by McMaster University Libraries)

Using Top Level Domains in Your Research (such as .com, .org, .ca) (Video by Imagine Easy Solutions)

Evaluating Sources CRAAP test (Video by Western University Libraries)

Online Verification Skills More tips on verifying online resources (Video by NewsWise)

We hope this blog post gives you some helpful tips and videos to guide you along your researching journey!

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Online Research Skills for High School Students: Tips and Strategies

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Online research takes skill. In high school, you need to transition from searching for information to researching a topic. When you have to do research, a simple Google search is no longer enough. This is when Google Scholar and library databases can help. We know this transition is challenging and...

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Don't be fooled by fake screenshots | Is This Legit

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Use the three websites with 👽 next to them to research and evaluate. Are all of these sources credible? Why or why not? What conclusion can you come to after looking at these websites?

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U.S. Air Force Documents on UFO Sightings are Public Records

The U.S. Air Force dropped a bombshell on the world in 2015 when they officially released all their information on UFO sightings in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. The information is known as the Project Blue Book Files (PBBF) and it contains close to 130,000 pages of details on UFO sightings made by Air Force personnel.

Area 51 Declassified CIA Documents

Area 51 is one of the most famous focal points of UFO theories. It has been referred to in popular culture numerous times as a place that is associated with crashed alien spacecraft, alien corpses, government conspiracies and many other similar topics. In 2013, a CIA report finally confirmed the existence of Area 51 in a set of declassified documents on the history of OXCART and various U-2 projects.

Roswell UFO Incident

Roswell is the undisputed most popular UFO sighting of all time. No UFO event has received anywhere near the amount of media coverage or investigative effort as the Roswell crash. It has eyewitness testimonies of a UFO, a crash site, wreckage, and aliens. And of course, it has a government claim that the wreckage was from a weather balloon.

Pascagoula Alien Abduction

There are many cases involving people that claim they were abducted by aliens. The vast majority of these cases lack any real evidence. However, once in awhile you find one that definitely makes you wonder. The secret tape in the Pascagoula alien abductees case makes it one of those interesting ones.

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U.S. Air Force Documents on UFO Sightings are Public Records The U.S. Air Force dropped a bombshell on the world in 2015 when they officially released all their information on UFO sightings in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

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The Kepler space telescope was NASA's first planet-hunting mission, assigned to search a portion of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-sized planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. During nine years in deep space Kepler, and its second act, the extended mission dubbed K2, showed our galaxy contains billions of hidden "exoplanets," many of which could be promising places for life.

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World Exclusive: In December 2010, a lady contacted our website because she believed she had been abducted by aliens. But what made this encounter unique was that she also had film footage of the abduction!

Cosmic Conpiracies has the World exclusive rights to this encounter and footage.

Click here to read the complete story and view the footage

The STS-75 Tether Incident

Some of the best ever UFO footage ever captured was taken during a NASA Space Shuttle Mission that was launched on Sunday, February 22nd, 1996. The Space Shuttle Columbia deployed an experimental aerial into orbit. The experiment, also known as the ' Tethered Satellite System (TSS- 1R)' attempted to generate electricity by utilizing Earth's magnetic field. As the 12-mile long, 100 million dollar tether was pulled behind the space shuttle, it was bombarded by charged particles from the upper atmosphere and cosmic rays from the sun.

The tether was made of strong synthetic fibres, but unfortunately on February 25th, it became overcharged with ions and eventually snapped and floated away into space. The cameras aboard the Shuttle captured the events and continued to film the tether as it drifted away. It was at 90 nautical miles that something strange started to happen - swarms of unidentified flying objects began to fly around the broken tether.

You can read the full story and see video footage in our new article HERE .

HUGE 'APOLLO HOAX' UPDATE - PART ONE

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings, we have been working hard to bring you an update to our most popular article - The Apollo Hoax. Over the past year, our researcher, Dave Cosnette, has been delving deeper into what he believes is a NASA cover-up of the alleged Moon footage. Dave has been investigating the subject for the past 10 years and PART ONE is now available to read. The new Apollo Hoax section will be the definitive answer to the Apollo missions and will have approximately 5 times more information than the original article. It will also dismiss the common misconceptions of 'blowing flags' and other faulty hoax theories that have been floating around the web.

New evidence will include pictures of astronauts without backpacks, cosmonauts blinded by radiation, the real story behind the missing original Apollo 11 tapes and much, much more.

That is why the entire article will be released in stages over the next few weeks.

You can read the latest Apollo update by clicking here
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The Calling
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Cosmic Conspiracies - Europe's Largest UFOs and Aliens Database

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What Are Credible Sources & How to Spot Them | Examples

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A credible source is free from bias and backed up with evidence. It is written by a trustworthy author or organization. There are a lot of sources out

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Join an activity with your class and find or create your own quizzes and flashcards.

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List of reliable websites for research: Bookmark this!

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List of reliable websites for research: Bookmark this!

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Most Reliable and Credible Sources for Students | Common Sense Education

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Most Reliable and Credible Sources for Students is a list of 27 apps, games, and websites curated by Common Sense Education editors.

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Become a remarkable, reliable researcher!