"Reference Hunt" with Newman

HIS 152, July 5th 7-9:30 with Chris Newman

FORMAT
Ice Breaker Questions
Research & Resources
PowerPoint
Demonstrations - OPAC, Credo Reference, Academic Search Premier, ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Speech Copying
Research Scavenger Hunt

I had taught this class before, so I had already made up a sheet for the scavenger hunt activity. However, up until 2 hours before I wasn't actually sure I would do the scavenger hunt. However, in the end it was really fun (I think) and it did get the students to dive into using library resources and critically evaluating websites that may have just as good of information. The class was quite long since they had to report back on their research experience; however some time was saved with my copying the nine speeches that are a part of his speech analysis assignment. So, the class served to introduce them to research through the "reference hunt" and through my demonstration of the four databases that could be used for their speech topic. It was quite a bit to accomplish, but a novelty to have so much time as well.

To Improve - Potentially think of more examples for the research process slide, i.e. Lynn uses going on a trip to the Caribean. Also, perhaps something besides the stick shift analogy, though this is still workable, though many don't learn how to drive one anymore. . . Also, during the presentations potentially add how you could better evaluate the sources they found online, or if they had troubles finding in reference book show them how, or potentially look at how they searched on Credo reference, as some folks didn't seem to have good results in their searching and it would be could to address this if we only had time.

Grade 9, as good overall excepting that at first the students weren't interacting with me as much as I would have liked. I also was happy with the PowerPoint slide and the way I saved time by copying the speeches for the students. (See if these are on the MasterFILE Premier database the next time around or use the pdf that is saved on the wiki to avoid using that 20 minutes to copy. . . Reuse Newman's explanation of "primary resources" - if you are experiencing something firsthand then it is primary; however if you are hearing about it from someone who was there then it is secondary.

I was thinking I'd get to leave by 8:30, but since I like Newman and want to connect with students as much as possible I decided to stay until the presentations were over, which meant an hour later than I had planned. . .