Lesson+on+Databases

This is the lesson that I would teach to introduce databases.

Brief Introduction to Databases

DID YOU KNOW? • Did you know that companies can pay Google (or Yahoo! and possibly others) to place their website in the top ten hits even if their website is not necessarily the best result for the search? Question Is this fair? Is it good business? Is it good for the customer?

• Did you know that ANYONE can create a website even if the information is completely false? Example Keyword is Flagstone. Results include a website created by my little cousin who lives in Texas who was trying to be funny. He said that Flagstone is located in Highlands Ranch and that it is for grades 1-5 only. He also said that is an all boys school. The joke was funny but the website still comes up. If you were planning on moving to Colorado and wanted to find an elementary school for your daughter, this could be a huge problem! Or, what if you were writing a research report on Flagstone, would this information be good to include in your report? How do you know if it is right or wrong?

What about this site: [|Spaghetti] Would I get a good grade for my research?

• Did you know that Google searches can return thousands of hits? You may have to search through ten sites before finding the information you need. Question Have any of you had to do this?

WHY DATABASES ARE BETTER • Databases are created by companies that have been proven to be good by teachers and other people who know about each subject area. These databases are created by experts in each area that is covered in the database so the accuracy of the information is high.

• Databases return less results that are better quality so that you have less sites to look through to find the information you need.

• Databases make money by selling their database to schools. If they are not good, schools will not buy them. They want to be the best so that they make more money.

LET’S COMPARE We’re going to take a few moments examining the results that are returned from Google and from The Colorado Virtual Library for Kids. We’re going to search for information on Molly Brown.

As you can see, Google returned 1,780,000 results. That’s a lot of information to search through! Some of the information may be what you need, but some of it would not be very helpful. For example, for this project you don’t need to know about the movie Titanic and who the actors are. It’s fun to look at, but it wastes valuable research time and we probably will not use it for our report.

CVL returned three results. Each of the hits includes information that we need. We probably can find all of the information we need for our report using these thee sites. We’ll save lots of time by not having to search through tons and tons of sites.

WHAT IF? What if you cannot find information on a database? What do you do? You may need to search online. Some search engines may be better for your purpose than others. You may even need to do an ADVANCED search using the Boolean operators not, and, or to help limit the number of hits that you get. On our website there is a list of search engines and instructions for how to do this.

For your project, we have created a new page on your class website titled Famous Coloradoan Project. On this page you will be able to find all of your project details, grading rubric, the famous Coloradoan that each student will research, and a resource list to help you research your famous person. You may access this site from school or from home.


 * For the purpose of this midterm, a wiki will serve as a replacement for the class webpage** ***