Digital, AI & Creative Skills
Search Like A Researcher
This lesson helps students search with a clear purpose. They practise stronger search terms, try several precise queries, compare independent sources, and build a Search Plan.
What you will learn
- Understand that researcher style searching is a very different activity from casual searching, and that small habit changes dramatically improve the quality of what you find online.
- Learn to write specific keyword queries, use simple search operators, and try multiple wordings of the same question instead of relying on one vague query.
- Learn to read at least three different sources on the same question and compare them for agreement, disagreement, and whether they are truly independent or just copies of the same original.
- Combine the three earlier chapter skills (specific questions, precise queries, source comparison) into a one page Search Plan for a real question the student wants answered.
What happens in this lesson
Chapter 1: Searching Like A Researcher
Understand that researcher style searching is a very different activity from casual searching, and that small habit changes dramatically improve the quality of what you find online.
What you make: A saved research mindset note describing one recent search the student made and how a researcher would have approached the same question differently.
Chapter 2: Precise Queries
Learn to write specific keyword queries, use simple search operators, and try multiple wordings of the same question instead of relying on one vague query.
What you make: A saved query note with three different precise queries for the same question, showing how each one asks slightly differently and what each one is trying to surface.
Chapter 3: Compare Sources
Learn to read at least three different sources on the same question and compare them for agreement, disagreement, and whether they are truly independent or just copies of the same original.
What you make: A saved comparison note for three sources on the same question, noting agreements, disagreements, and whether the sources are genuinely independent.
Chapter 4: Your Search Plan
Combine the three earlier chapter skills (specific questions, precise queries, source comparison) into a one page Search Plan for a real question the student wants answered.
What you make: A saved Search Plan for a real question covering the specific question, the precise queries, the three kinds of sources to compare, and the success criterion for when the research is complete.
Chapter 5: Research Under Pressure
Apply researcher-style searching to a harder, real question where sources conflict, time is limited, and the learner must decide what evidence is strong enough to act on.
What you make: A saved pressure-test research brief that names a real decision question, the fastest credible search path, the strongest and weakest sources, and a justified conclusion with limits.
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