Full Circle Resource Kits

Action Zone User's Guide to Snowsport Challenges

Four different Action Zone activities form the core of interactive tutorials in this (Vol 1, No 6) edition of the Full Circle Resource Kit. Since uses for Search Challenges, Keyword Challenges and Archery Challenges have been introduced in previous Resource Kits, the main focus here is on Snowsport, our newest series of tutorial games.

Both this month's Search Challenge and Keyword Challenge share a similar question: "What celebrated blue diamond turns red when exposed to UV rays?" The Keyword Challenge may be used to introduce important search concepts and getting students to think of better words for some of the concepts. Follow this with the live Search Challenge to see if they can find the answer.

We've added another database game to our Archery Challenges series with Can Yahoo! google it? This time we've plumbed the Yahoo! database to demonstrate types of information that can only be retrieved using a proprietary database. As it turns out both Google and Yahoo! perform the same on these 10 challenges. By paying attention, searchers can detect patterns in the type of information that Yahoo! (and Google) cannot retrieve and save valuable time by not searching in the wrong place.

Search Challenge image of coach on bench

Snowsport Challenges

Three challenges form the Snowsport suite of games. These activities are scaffolded, involving increasingly sophisticated keyword skills. Drawing on the snowsports metaphor, Challenge I is like starting on the Bunny Hill. Challenge II hits the slopes and Challenge III is the equivalent of a black diamond run. To avoid frustration, it's best to start with the beginner's Challenge I and work up to the pro level of Challenge III.

Snowsport Challenge I

The first game is a variation on a Keyword Challenge. The player clicks only on the important search terms in the research question: "What competitive winter sport is considered a variation of motocross on snow?" This is the equivalent of identifying only the good "as-is" keywords and important "intermediate terms" in a Keyword Challenge. Points are won for correct choices (and lost for incorrect choices). This exercise may be used as a self-guided activity or a classroom demonstration to reinforce concepts in initial keyword selection and understanding the objective meaning of a search.

Snowsport Challenge II

The second game is a variation on Snippet Sleuth. In this version, we continue to use the optimal query (boldface terms) from Snowsport I: "What competitive winter sport is considered a variation of motocross on snow?" Two of the top Google snippets for the query are displayed. Every term in each snippet is a hot spot and can be clicked for feedback.

The objective of this exercise is to select only the terms that improve the query (replacing intermediate terms with better keywords) while avoiding any terms that are ineffective (based on Google results). A perfect score is 5 to 0. The point emphasized is to read carefully, looking for hyponyms to replace terms in the query. This activity is best played by an individual and may be repeated to improve one's score. For a group option, divide the class into two teams: team I (the effective term team) chooses an effective term on its turn; team 2 (the ineffective term team) chooses an ineffective term on its turn. Play until one team has five points--the scoreboard keeps track of both teams' scores. Snowsport II could also be used as an informal assessment of students' abilities to find better keywords as they search (play it once in this case).

Snowsport Challenge III

The final game poses a series of 10 challenging search runs. For each one, a new sample query is provided. The object of this exercise is to improve the sample query by selecting the best term or terms from a list of three. The first six runs involve replacing a keyword with one or more of the choices. The next two require removing any unnecessary keyword and the last two challenges require adding one or more necessary keywords.

A range of search strategies are involved in these keyword selection tasks, forming the core of the "lessons learned" in this activity:

• Differentiating hyponyms, hypernyms and synonyms

• Selecting important hyponyms whenever possible: especially proper nouns, numbers, and using nouns instead of verbs

• Choosing words with few meanings

• Choosing words with few uses in a given context

• Using unique/rare combinations of terms

• Checking out unfamiliar terms in context

• Avoiding words that are redundant

• Avoiding unnecessary terms and stop words

• Letting a search engine look for suffixes

Scores are tabulated; 13 is a perfect score--not easy to attain even for a seasoned searcher. The examples given are all based on Google searches. The feedback provided may be used to improve one's performance on subsequent trials. Given the difficulty and the number of skills/strategies measured, this challenge should not be used as an assessment. Encourage students to play it until their score is 10 or higher. They will notice an increase in the number of falling snowflakes as they approach a perfect score.