Locating Information in an Electronic Data Base, Author(s):Jean MacAlpine , Grade Level: 5, Subject Area:Integrated, - Using an LCD unit, or in small groups, the librarian will demonstrate how to enter Primary Search. She will model a search using Springer, Jeff as the subject to be searched. They will note the number of hits and print out an article by Springer. Students will then try a search using a topic of their search. Not all students will have the opportunity to do this in this session.

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Madison-Oneida BOCES- This document may not be reproduced in any form without the expressed written consent of the District Superintendent or his designee.

LU Title: Locating Information in an Electronic Data Base.	Author(s): Jean MacAlpine
Grade Level: 5th	School Address: Clinton Elementary School
Subject Area: Integrated	School Phone/Fax: (315)853-5574

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Declarative	Procedural
A magazine article is both a print document and an electronic document.	Students will learn to search for information in an electronic magazine data base.
Magazines are useful for particular kinds of information such as current events, celebrities, and topics for which there is no book to sign out.	Students will use the citations of articles in the database to rank articles as to usefulness.
Information from magazines can be accessed and retrieved from a data base in a computer or on a computer network, as well as from the magazine itself.	Students will navigate from one point in a database to another.
A citation provides the title of the article, the title of the source, date, pages and author.
Two magazine data bases that are owned currently by the Clinton Central School District are Primary Search, , and Electric Library.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What is an Electronic Database?
How do I locate and retrieve information from an electronic database?

INITIATING ACTIVITY

LAUNCH.: The librarian will bring in a small carved wooden figure of a French Canadien voyageur, and explain it’s origin. She will explain that a relative of hers carved this figure and told her the story of the Voyageur, and that he writes for Boy’s Life Magazine. She will explain to the class that they can look into a program called Primary Search and see if they can locate articles by this person, Mr. Jeff Springer.

Using an LCD unit, or in small groups, the librarian will demonstrate how to enter Primary Search. She will model a search using Springer, Jeff as the subject to be searched. They will note the number of hits and print out an article by Springer. Students will then try a search using a topic of their search. Not all students will have the opportunity to do this in this session.

Connection to State Learning Standards

Content Area: L.A. and Technology

Level: Gr. 5

Benchmarks: #1: Listening and reading to acquire information, collect data, facts and ideas, discover relationships, concepts and generalizations, and using knowledge from oral, written and electronic resources.

Benchmarks:.Systematically obtain accurate and relevant information pertaining to a particular topic from a range of sources, including local and national media, libraries, museums, governmental agencies, industries, and individuals.

Standard: Language for Information and Understanding

Standard: Technology Standard 2: Students will access, generate , process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

Standard: LA. #3: Language for critical analysis and evaluation

Standard:

Learning Experiences

Declarative Knowledge

What declarative knowledge should students

be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of the unit, the student will know or understand… Students will know and understand that magazine and other print sources of information can also be obtained electronically. They will name two electronic magazine databases, and will name three uses for an electronic database.

What experiences or activities will be used to help students acquire & integrate this knowledge?

Students will brainstorm to come up with uses for an electronic database. Assignments during the year will provide opportunities and needs for accessing and retrieving information from these resources.

What strategies will be used to help students construct meaning, organize and/or store the knowledge?

Students will have hands-on activities to provide the opportunity to acquaint themselves with these kinds of information resources.

Describe what will be done.

Students will observe the librarian performing a search on Primary Search to locate information about Jeff Springer. They will then look on Electric Library t articles. They will see after this that each database is different. They will be able to recognize three databases, and explain what each is.

Learning Experiences

Procedural Knowledge

What procedural knowledge will students be in the process of acquiring & integrating? As a result of this unit, students will be able to:	What will be done to help students construct models, shape & internalize the knowledge?	Describe what will be done.
Students will be able to navigate through an electronic database, using the instructions, buttons, etc.	Librarian will model search stragegies and provide guides and hands-on time.	Students will be given a topic to search in each database and will compare results in each. Some examples of topics might be: jet skis, maple syrup, oregon trail, contemporary women, contemporary blacks, earth month and science fair topics.

Learning Experiences

Extending and Refining

What knowledge will students be extending and refining? Specifically, they will be extending and refining their understanding of…

What reasoning process will they be using?

Describe what will be done.

The students will extend and refine their understanding of what magazines are, how information can be accessed and retrieved electronically and how to evaluate resources.

Comparing

Classifying

Inductive Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

Error Analysis

Analyzing Perspectives

Constructing Support

Abstracting

Other:

Students will compare electronic resources to print ones. They will also contrast the way information is gathered from print and electronic sources. They will also compare the electronic resources themselves to one another. They will do an error analysis to determine why they did not get the kinds of results they were looking for. They will classify or prioritize their results in terms of relevance.

Learning Experiences

Meaningful Use Tasks

What knowledge will students be using meaningfully? Specifically, they will be demonstrating their understanding of and ability to..

What reasoning process will they be using?

Describe what will be done.

Students will be able to identify the magazine data bases on the network menu. They will recognize the components of the data base and understand what each component does.

Decision Making

(selecting from seemingly equal alternatives or examining the decisions of others)

Problem Solving

(seeking to achieve a goal by over coming constraints or limiting conditions)

Invention

(creating something to meet a need or improve on a situation)

Experimental Inquiry (generating an explanation for a phenomenon and testing the explanation)

Investigation

(resolving confusions or contradictions related to a historical event, a hypothetical past or future event, or to the defining characteristics of something)

Systems Analysis

(analyzing the parts of a system

and how they interact)

Other:

Students will analyze the system to see how the database works. They will also create a list of articles from the citations -generated by the search on the data base.

Students will use Primary Search to locate magazine articles on an assigned topic. They will locate two relevant articles, read the citations extract three or more facts from the article. This is an example of decision making. They will also be analyzing the system; i.e. learning how each data base works. They will then search Electric Library to compare the sources and decide which best suits their needs.

Rubric:

Key Questions:

What are the key elements, traits, or dimensions that will be evaluated?

Are the identified elements of equal importance or will they be weighed differently?

Element #1 Element #2 Element #3 Element #4

Elements Scale	Identifying an electronic data base "What is an electronic data base?"	Searching for information on a topic "How do I use this data base?"	Selecting an appropriate data base "What is the best data base for my informational need?"	Prioritizing articles by relevance to need. "Which articles were the most helpful?"
Weights
4	Student names two data bases, explains what they do, and tells the difference between the two.	Student independently forms a search and gets results from two data bases.	Student names the data base he will first search and explains his rationale for choosing that one.	Student selects three articles and tells why he feels these are most helpful.
3	Students name two data bases and identifies what they do.	Student, with guidance, forms a search and gets results from two data bases.	Student uses both data bases and then chooses which is best.	Student is guided through the abstracts of articles and assisted in making choices of which articles to use..
2	Students name at least one data base and describes it’s function.	Student, needs assistance in deciding on a search topic and choosing an appropriate data base.	Student explains why this data base was chosen for him to search his topic.	Student searches results list to find key words highlighted.
1	Student identifies electronic data base from the network menu.	Student opens the Primary Search with assistance, and performs a simple search.