Access

Since Kayla has her own computer at home, she decided to start her research on the internet.

Her decision was to use a search engine such as Google and type in her topic “oil spills and environmentally safe clean up options” into the search bar.

She came up with the following websites:

She realized that her search has led to different environmentally safe clean up options but her assignment relating back to chemistry required her to concentrate on the chemical reactions that are helpful to remove pollutants from the environment. Going through these websites, she also learned that the chemicals that are used on an oil spill are known as dispersants. So she decided to change her search strategy and focus on dispersants instead. Her new key words were dispersants AND oil spills


 * Questions:**


 * Do you think Kayla made the right decision to change her search strategy?**


 * Do you agree that now Kayla was using the appropriate key words?**

Entering the new key words, to Kayla's dismay, the results yielded her websites that had minimal information on the topic of chemical dispersants. The following websites came up:



In desperation, she called her cousin Sandra who just finished university to ask for advice. Sandra listened to her sympathetically and asked Kayla that she needed to chalk out a plan for her research project and then decide on the search options. Kayla replied that she would like to know the different types of dispersant being used, their chemical composition, how do they work on oil spills and their effectiveness. Sandra was impressed and said that it was a pretty comprehensive list and she should move forward on those lines now. Sandra suggested to enter keywords "types of dispersant AND oil spills". Kayla thanked her, hung up and resumed her task.


 * Questions:**


 * Should Kayla act upon her cousin's advice?**


 * Looking at her plan for the project, should Kayla add some other key words in her search?**

After entering the key words her cousin suggested, she came up with websites that contained good information on dispersants. After some consideration, she chose three websites.




 * Questions:**
 * Would these three websites be enough for Kayla's project?**
 * Should Kayla have tried search engines other than Google?**

Kayla was now feeling good about the progress she has made. Next day she asked her teacher about articles from scientific journals. She asked her teacher if she needs to visit the local library to look for them. Her teacher advised her to look into Google Scholar first and try to find some journals containing relevent information.

She was unable to work on her project that day as she had a quiz for math the next day and she spent that evening studying for that. She resumed her search the next day and went to Google Scholar and entered her key words. She came up with journals that contained little relevant information on her topic. On the side she saw an advanced search option and decided to try that. In the advanced search option she selected the subject 'Chemistry and Material's Science' and chose the option of 'find articles with all of the words'. She came up with different articles but she realized that some articles contained material that was beyond her knowledge of chemistry. She selected one article that seemed to include comprehensive and relevant information.




 * Questions:**
 * Was Kayla's decision to try the advanced search option the right one?**
 * Should she have entered in the other option spaces for example the dates for the articles?**
 * Is one article enough for the purpose of Kayla's assignment?**
 * Should a trip to the library would have been more beneficial?**
 * Should Kayla have looked into other online places to find articles?**