Writeup Instructions: (39 questions) For this lab, simply answer the questions fully and directly. In your writeup, write each question number followed by the appropriate answer. Do not repeat the question wording in your writeup. Enter your answers under the Lab Report for Internet Search in the Submit Labs area. Do NOT email me your answers. I highly recommend that you record your answers using a word processing program, save, and then cut and paste into the answer area.
Purpose: This lab is designed to reinforce your basic search skills for the Internet and to introduce you to some basic reference sites for the Hawaiian environment.
Most of this lab is based on an online search tutorial from University of California at Berkeley.
The lab has 3 parts:
NOTE: If you have trouble with any of the links provided, please make an extra effort to find the web sites mentioned. Do a search with appropriate keywords, for example. Unfortunately, organizations tend to move material to new URLs faster than I can keep them updated. If you find any broken links, please let me know immediately.
PART 1: Scavenger Hunt (finding information from known sites)
1. Find an article on beach (or sand) replenishment in Hawaii from one of Hawaii's newspapers using the search option at the newspaper site. Simply find the Search box (top of page on left), type in what you want to search for, and press Enter or click the appropriate icon. If you cannot find an article in one newspaper, try the other. Give the date of the article and the location of the beach replenishment. (TIP: when searching for something specific which contains 2 words, be sure to put them in quotes, such as "beach replenishment" or "sand replenishment" and be sure to spell correctly.)
2. Find out the drought conditions for Hawaii using the National Drought Monitor Site (NOAA-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Click the link below, then match the colors on the legend beside the map with the drought areas of the Islands. Which island is experiencing the most severe drought? _______________________ What is the color code for that level of severity? _________________
3. Find out the monthly average rainfall for July in Hilo and Lihue at the National Weather Service Site. Under the Climate and Past Weather menu, click Local, then click NOWData from the tabs menu (top of page), then choose 1. Location (choose city), 2. Product (Daily/monthly normals) 3. Options: Type (Monthly) Variable (Precipitation) 4. View (Go). Scroll down below the graph and read rainfall (precipitation) values from the table, first column.
4. What was the Date, Magnitude, and Depth of the most recent recorded earthquake in Hawaii? At the HVO site (below), click on Earthquakes (top) and read the top record in the table to the right of the map.
5. Find one endangered bird specie from the Hawaii Biologic Survey. Simply give the common or Hawaiian name of the specie.
Hawaii Biological Survey (Bishop Museum)
6. Find out what areas have the highest percentage of college graduates on Oahu. Click the site below, then under "Maps, Tools, and Applications," click Census Interactive Online Maps, scroll to the bottom and under 2000 Census Data click Thematic Maps, Other Categories, Percent of Persons with Bachelor's Degree (scroll down to see all the districts). Simply name (approximately) the area or areas that have the highest percentage of college graduates. Note: the darker the color, the higher the percentage.
Use UC-Berkeley Search Strategies to answer the following questions:
7. What are the five (5)recommended steps in finding information?
8. What two (2) search starting places are NOT recommended?
9. What is the difference between the "visible web" and the "invisible web?" (Click on Invisible Web at the bottom of the page and answer in your own words)
10. What is the difference with a search engine and a meta-search engine? Give an example of each. (Click Meta-Search Engines at bottom of page and answer in your own words)
Project 1: Learn to search using phrases in quotation marks (" "). Let's say you saw the phrase "The last major Pacific wide tsunami occurred in 1964" and you wanted to find the full article it came from. Find the (or an) article using Google that contains this phrase. Simply copy the phrase, including quotation marks, paste into the Google search field and click Search.
11. Who maintains the site and what is the URL where you found the article?
12. What are the first few words of the next sentence in the article?
Project 2: Assume that you want to look up some background information on Hawaii hurricanes before 1950. By this I mean SUSPECTED hurricanes, because the climate history of the Hawaiian Islands does not specifically identify any for this period. Nonetheless, today, several storms (called "cyclones" in the old literature) are believed to have been hurricanes. NOTE: this is a bit of a challenge, but think logically and don't expect search engines to go directly to the page you are looking for. If you cannot find an example, that's OK, you will not be graded down. Just tell me what you tried.
13. First: tell how you used each of the 5 recommended steps (see question 7 above) in finding information?
14. What keywords did you use? What were your results? If you found info, give the URL.
15. Give an example of a suspected hurricane before 1950 (year, month, and location) or describe the steps you followed in your attempt.
There are billions of web pages out there and nobody is responsible for filtering the quality of information they contain. One of the greatest challenges in using the Internet is evaluating the information you find after searching. The content might be neutral and accurate, but more often than not, it is biased or simply wrong. Use the UC Berkeley tutorial for evaluating web pages to answer the following questions:
16. What are the 5 things that UC Berkeley suggests you explore when evaluating web pages?
Evaluating the URL: Answer the questions about the URL given below using instructions from the UC Berkeley tutorial. (NOTE: do not click on the URL below, it is not a real address; answer the questions simply by examining the URL itself.)
http://www.hawaii.rr.com/~ghemming/pighunters_association.html
17. Is this somebody's personal page? Explain your conclusion.
18. What type of domain (.gov, .com, etc.) does it come from (government, military, education, commercial, etc.)?
19. Is is published by an entity that "makes sense" for providing for reliable information? Explain your conclusion.
20. If you wanted unbiased, neutral facts about pig hunting in Hawaii, do you think this would be the best site? Explain why you think that. If biased, what do your think their position is on pig hunting?
Page Perimeter: Click the link below and answer the questions about the site given using instructions from the UC Berkeley tutorial.
21. What subject does the page discuss?
22. Who wrote the page and what is the publication date given?
23. What type of domain (.edu, .mus, .com, etc.) does it come from?
24. What are the author's credentials (do they seem to be authoritative, or simply a "hobbyist" or "self-proclaimed expert")?
25. If you wanted unbiased, neutral facts about this issue, do you think this would be a good site? Why or why not?
Indicators of Quality: Click the link below and answer the questions about the site given using instructions from the UC Berkeley tutorial.
26. Are sources documented with citations or links? Give one citation or link.
27. Do the links work?
28. Who published this article? Do you think this is a reputable publication? Why or why not?
29. If you wanted quality information about this subject, do you think this would be a good site? Why or why not?
What Others Say: Answer questions about the site below using instructions from the UC Berkeley tutorial. First, go to Google and do a "links search" by typing link:http://weather.hawaii.edu/
Hawaii Weather (by UH Meteorology)
30. Who links to the page (give examples)? If the links search fails, say so.
31. Is the page listed in one or more reputable directories or pages?
32. Do the number of links suggest that it is a reputable, authoritative site?
33. Go to alexa.com and type in the URL hawaii.edu in the Find box at the top of the page. What is the Global Rank.for hawaii.edu?
34. Scroll Down. Under "Audience Geography," what are the top four countries for visitors to the site?
35. Under "How engaged .....," what is the "Bounce Rate " for hawaii.edu.
All Together: Click the link below and answer the questions about the site given using instructions from the UC Berkeley tutorial.
36. Why do you think the page was put on the web? To inform, persuade, sell, share, disclose, or other motivation?
37. Might it be ironic? Satire or parody? Could it be a hoax? Why do you think so?
38. Is this as good as resources I could find in a library, or some of the web-based indexes available through the library, or other print resources?
39. Please tell me about how long it took you to complete this lab and what significant problems you had. Thanks.
CONGRATULATIONS! You're a web surfing pro!