Full Circle Resource Kits

To illustrate how the Query Checklist may be used, a free lesson was found on the Internet:

The Middle East: Water and Life

desert oasis

The original 10th grade Social Studies lesson was written by Phyllis Hayashibara of Venice High School and Tim Henderson of Palisades High School (endnote).

General objectives for the Water and Life unit are:

• To understand how water as an economic good drives regional politics;

• To understand how water as an environmental essential interweaves with regional culture; and

• To understand how the water problems of the region can reflect similar or corresponding issues in our own lives.

Students are asked to examine the physical and cultural impressions made by water in the Middle East, as well as their own lives, through exercises in reading, writing, geography and art. The unit culminates in the following assessment:

• How do historical developments in the Middle East factor into current problems and conflicts involving water in that region?
• How might these problems develop in the future?
• How do they relate to water issues in other areas and in your own life?
• How might they be solved?
• Respond with a minimum of five paragraphs, cite three examples studied and refer to a minimum of three different areas of study (e.g., social studies, science & art).

Adaptation Strategy:

• Direct students to identify the key concepts in the first question provided by the authors, “How do historical developments in the Middle East factor into current problems and conflicts involving water in that region?”
• Provide practice translating concepts into an effective query using the Query Checklist
• Have students translate the concepts into a query for searching for the three examples required by the paper.

Instructional Tasks: (Possible answers are shown in red)

Rephrase the question as an answer. Since an answer is what students need to find, rephrasing the question may suggest different search terms. For more information on this technique see Tip of the Month.	(e.g., Water conflicts or disputes in the Middle East are related to the historical development or history of the region)
What are the key concepts in the answer? Which concepts are the most important?	(e.g., Middle East, water conflicts or disputes, historical developments or history)
Use the Query Checklist to build an optimal query	(1: 3 concepts) (2: Use all the concepts) (3: “As is” = Middle East) (4: Intermediate terms = water conflicts, historical development) (5: Hyponyms – “water rights” If no better words are known, where may they be found? History book, snippets, thesaurus) (6: If Middle East is used together, it probably has no unexpected meanings, water has lots of meanings; historical developments, if not used in “” will probably fetch a lot of unrelated pages; “history” may be a better search word) (7: No stop words or clutter words are being used) (8: Spelling is accurate) (9: Word order seems appropriate)
Starting with the resulting query, have students conduct individual searches, looking for better keywords for “water conflicts” and “historical development” in snippets and web pages.
Have students report back on better keywords they found.
If individuals need to review the process or distinguishing between effective words and clutter words, have them complete one or more Keyword Challenges.

Reference: Hayashibara, Phyllis and Tim Henderson . "The Middle East: Water and Life." Urban Education Partnership (1997): Urban Education Partnership 24 March 2006 < http://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/humanitas/unit1.html >.