ed-se

= Educational Search Engines =

toc

Boolify
Whether or not students believe it, there are other ways to search besides using Google. Google is a great search engine, but sometimes trying to find information can be daunting. Have you ever said, “Okay, I’m only going to search through 5 pages, & then try something else." Let’s save time, & help our students find results with trying some other great sites for students.

Boolify is a great way for students to learn how search operator words affect search results. Boolify provides a jigsaw into which students can drag search modifier pieces, like “and,” “or,” & “not,” to a search piece. Each time a piece is added the search results at the bottom of the page will change. Students can then see how their search results shrink in number.

SweetSearch
A search engine that searches only the sites that have been reviewed & approved by teachers, librarians, & research experts. Another great thing about SweetSearch is that there are five other search niches;
 * **SweetSearch4Me** - for elementary students
 * **SweetSearch2Day** - a daily assortment of the best content on the Web
 * **Biographies**

**SweetSites**
Need some recommendations on what sites to look for information for a project on? SweetSites by **SweetSearch** has a list of engaging sites already put to together. Organized by grade level & subject area for both teachers & students.

Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram Alpha is known as a computation & statistics search engine, but it is so much more. I prefer to call it a Knowledge Engine. Another way to think of it is a Google/encyclopedic knowledge for students, especially those with special needs. It's not an index of the web like Google or Bing or a replacement, it's an index of information. It is not a replacement of Google, but it is one of the smartest search engines available. It presents results in a clear easy to read format, & it can compare two different search results.

Instead of searching the web like Google or Bing, it does computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, & methods. Wolfram Alpha’s goal is to build on the achievements of science & math to provide a single source that can be relied on for definitive answers to factual queries.

To really understand how this application works, try typing in your birthday to see what you get. You may notice right away that you get information right away without having to search through webpages as you would on Google or Bing. Now try typing in “1 Apple, 1 Orange.” What did you get? It compared the nutritional information of an apple & orange. Feel free to search examples or choose explore a random search.

There is such a range of applications that it can be almost difficult to understand all of its uses in the classroom. **Wolfram Alpha for Educators** is a collection of free lesson plans, examples of, & ideas for using this site in the classroom. The lesson plans are arranged in three categories – mathematics, science, & social studies. All of the lesson plans are available as free PDFs.

//Last Updated - May 2013//