This short lesson introduces identifying search terms with a Koosh ball. The 10 minute activity can be used in one-shot instruction sessions or built in to credit bearing information literacy courses.

This lesson, created for English 2010, or Argumentative Writing, teaches students how to use library databases and keywords in order to focus their research topics. Most students come prepared with a general or broad topic in mind, but they need to narrow their focus in order to get more relevant search results. Here they simultaneously learn to search in and use the library databases and to focus their research topics.

An activity to teach students how to construct database searches using Boolean operators.