Internet Research for Students
Filamentality
To set up lesson plans on the net for research questions
and answers. These are known as treasure hunts and
hot lists. Also there is an example of a more complicated
' webquest':
One of the best techniques for student research projects is the research
grid.The following example was given to me by Raymond Sheehan:
INTERNET RESEARCH GRID---COUNTRIES
Complete the table with information about three countries.
Choose one country from Europe, one from Africa and the third
country from any continent you want.
Try to choose countries that are different from everybody else�s in your class!
Find the information on the website :http://www.atlapedia.com/
Country France Nigeria Argentina
Currency _______ ________ ________
Population _______ ________ ________
Area _______ ________ ________
Summer temperature _______ ________ ________
Winter temperature _______ ________ ________
No. of daily newspapers _______ ________ ________
No. of soldiers _______ ________ ________
3 main exports _______ ________ ________
Write a short report comparing the three countries:
Similar grids can be devised for other websites quite easily and are
particularly useful for practising comparitive descriptions in technical
English and evaluations.
e.g. Military English. Along the horizontal axis - the names of the planes,
helicopters,ships, landcraft, arms etc. and down the vertical axis
specifications. This information can be found on the following sites:
Airforce Technology
Naval Technology
Army Technology
or on the individual manufacturers' sites of the craft or weapons selected.
A popular technical site for work with filamentality and projects
in general:
howstuffworks
for the history and functioning of all manner of machines and devices
and links for product surveys.
