Ask Research Questions and Choose Sources

Conduct short research by narrowing a topic, asking useful questions, and selecting relevant print/digital sources.

How the lesson starts: Ask Research Questions and Choose Sources

Tomas and the octopus
Tomas the tortoise just visited the aquarium. Now he wants to learn everything about octopuses. The library has four hundred ocean books! That could take a hundred years. He needs one focused question.
Narrow the topic
Researchers start broad, then narrow down. Sea animals is huge. Octopuses is smaller. Octopus hiding is smaller still. How they change color is focused. Now Tomas knows exactly what to look for.
Spot the traps
Tomas writes some questions. Most are traps. One is too broad. One has a one-word answer. One is an opinion. One is off topic. The last is focused: how do octopuses change color to hide? Sources can answer that!