Year:8TOPIC:Where Have All Our Frogs Gone?Date Scheduled

Year:8TOPIC:Where Have All Our Frogs Gone?Date Scheduled

Year:8TOPIC:Where have all our frogs gone?Date scheduled:

Steps / Process and strategies / Resources
Step 1 / Defining
Tips and strategies
  • Be sure you understand your teacher’s expectations.
  • Brainstorming what you already know is a great way to start your research
/ Get a kick start; create a Mind map
Step 2 / Locating
  • Use print, ready reference sources, people etc. for some background information and finding facts. This will help you discover some basic information and the terminology [Keywords] you may need for searching elsewhere.
  • Find relevant information online
  • Reliable sites to check first
  • Web searching:
  • Advanced searching techniques:
  • You can ask Google to narrow your search by locating:
  • Certain domainseg: edu, gov, org
  • File types:powerpoints, pdf, word doc.
  • Particular dates
/ Print resources:
Search the library catalogue under: ‘Frogs’; ‘Frogs – Encyclopedias’; ‘Frogs – Australia’
See also if your teacher has organised a box of books on this topic.
Online Resources:
  • Use the ‘Frogs of Victoria’ to search:the Sophia Centre delicious
  • ‘Frogs‘ to searchWeblinks Plusand BritannicaOnlinesites linked on the Library Research page.
Narrow your search and locate more specific aspects:
  • Advanced Google
  • Clusty – a metasearch engine:
Search: ‘FrogsAND Victoria AND Habitat’ etc
Narrow your results by searching for a specific species, eg:
“The Booroolong Frog”; “The Southern Barred Frog”
Step 3 / Analysing and synthesising
Don’t just copy and paste!
  • Take notes in dot point form, in your own words using a Data Chart.
  • Record the sources: author, title, publisher / website, date published / date accessed.
  • This is best recorded in a data chart because:
  • It brings all your notes together in one document,
  • If you need to check back on some information you can go directly to the source, you don’t have to search for it all over again.
  • You have all the details you need for your Bibliography.
  • It proves that you have read, understood and selected appropriate information and ideas.
/ Download a data chart template from the Sophia Centre Library Effective Researching diagram link to DATA CHART
Take notes in dot point form – in your own words
Step 4 / Synthesising / Drafting
  • Now you are ready to sort and group (chunk) ideas together and start drafting your response based on your own notes, not someone else’s work.
  • Remember to check that you have enough information and addressed all assessment criteria.
/ Pull together the pieces of information/ideas on the same aspects.
Put them into some structure and a logical sequence.
Now you are ready to start writing / creating in your own words.
Step 5 / Creating
  • Polishing your final product: check for correct spelling, punctuation and exact quotes.
  • Create a Bibliography of all the resources you used. It shows the breadth and depth of your research.
  • The easiest way is online with
  • Choose APA style
  • Select the appropriate format for each source
  • Fill in the spaces
  • Click: Add to my Bibliography
  • Then copy the citation into your assignment.
/ Proofread all your work
Use the St Columba’s Bibiographic guide in your planners.
OR
Use a bibliographic compiling site:
Be consistent.
Step 6 / Self Evaluating
Ask yourself:
  • Did I cover all aspects of the task?
  • What did I do well?
  • What did I find difficult?Identify one weak area.
  • What action do I need to take to improve next time?
  • Who / what could help me? Perhaps my teacher?
/ Reflect on how well you have worked on the task.

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