Research log entry- Unit 2, Assignment 2 (Topic Development)

1. Your topic string
   a. Your broadest topic
   Earthquakes
   
   b.Your next broad topic
   Earthquakes in the United States
   
   c. Your starting topic
   Earthquakes in California
   
   d. Your narrower topic
   Earthquakes in the Bay Area
   
   e. Your even narrower topic
   San Francisco Earthquake 1906
   
   
2. Think of two questions that you could ask about your topic
   a. What were the cause and effect of the San Francisco earthquake 1906?
   b. What signicant events occured during the San Francisco earthquake 1906

Unit 1 Part 2 Research Log Entry

1. 1.What question did you try to answer?
   What is the tectonic cycle?
   
   2.What terms did you select to begin?
   Tectonic cycle
   
   3.What web search engine or engines did you use?
   Yahoo, Google and Msn
   
   4.Search techniques
   a.What search terms did you use?
   I used the words "Tectonic Cycle" and "Cycle Tectonic"
   b.What search techniques did you try?
   I tried taking out the beginning portion of my phrase which included the word "The" since it wasn't necessary.
   
   5.Evaluation
   a.How did you evaluate your results?
   I distinguish them by the search engine that provided a wider selection to choose from
   b.What conclusions did you draw about the different search engines?
   I've come to notice that Yahoo always has the most results out of the others search engines I've tried in the past. When I tend to search yahoo they give me results but the million and nearly 10 thousands and up more than other search engines. Google comes in second then the rest.
   Consider
   i. what was the same?
   The majority of the results in each engine were similar.
   ii. what was different?
   The order of which site came first was the difference.
   iii. Differences in numbers of results
   Yahoo: 1,630, 000
   Google: 1,200,000
   MSN: 336,000
   iv. etc.
   c.Why do you think the search engines behaved as they did?
   I believe the search engines acted the way they did because yahoo is the more favored search engine in my mind. Alot more people use it rather than google or MSN, although it does suprise me that google wasn't the top one. Since yahoo is the most used it should have a wider selection.
   
   6.What other questions came into your mind as you carried out this exercise?
   I wonder if I am correct about what I suggested about yahoo being the most used engine thus making it the most popular.
   
   
   
2. 1.What is Delicious?
   An online service that keeps tracks of web bookmarks
   
   
   2.What is the advantage of this Web 2.0 tool?
   Easy to manage bookmark, your also able to tag your saved webpages. It's makes life easier on the web and much quicker so you don't to go through all the other steps.
   
   
   3.Do you think you might use it? If so, why? If not, why not?
   I would like to use it but I'm more of a simple computer person, I go through everything step by step without needing to complain but maybe in the future I might try it so it can get me through my task alot faster!

Research Log Activity and Entry

1. What question did you try to answer?
   What is the World hunger population?
   
   
2. What search engine or engines did you use?
   Yahoo and Google, which apparently are the most popular ones.
   
   
3. Questions about search
   3a. Which search terms did you use?
   - World hunger population
   - World hunger or population
   
   3b. How many results did you get when you entered your terms?
   How many did you get when you used OR?
   Which set was bigger? Can you figure out why?
   -World hunger population
   Yahoo: 20,600,000
   Google: 2,250,000
   - World hunger or population
   Yahoo: 20,700,000
   Google: 439,000
   Th e sets of "Or" on yahoo had a result of 100,000 more and I believe it is because the way the topic was worded gave it a wider range of things it could fall under and as for google it was alot less, and Im not quite sure but maybe it is because google needs more specific wording.
   
   
4. Evaluation: http://www.worldhunger.org/
   + What questions did you use to evaluate your result?
   I questioned whether the sites were credible or not, I checked for extensive data and currency.
   
   +What conclusion did you draw about the value of the site and why?
   I concluded that this a valid site because they have accurate information along with contact info and site services, you can easily contact website member to make sure.
   
   
5. Having conducted this research activity, what questions came into your mind that you could use to continue your exploration?
   How should I word my search when inputting it into the search engine as well as finding valid credible sites.

Research Log Entry

1. There were a number of concepts presented this week
   
   A.)Which did you know already?
   I was aware of search engines and how they work but I wasn't too familar with the blooean concept. I feel as if I've heard that method somewhere before although I never knew what it actaully was. And I'm pretty much familiar with blooger.com and how it generally works
   
   B.)Which were new to you?
   Blooean operators was fairly new to me, I've heard of the name before although I didn't know exactly what it was.
   
   
2. If you were given a research assignment and you chose the web as one strategy for your search, name three important evaluation elements you need to consider:
   - Depth
   - Currency
   - Credibility