Information Seeking strategies

2. Information seeking strategies

After finishing the task one, Students may have basic knowledge about the issue. In this part, students are required to:

1. Collect sources related to the research topic in various types (such as books, newspapers, websites, government document, etc. 
2. Based on the guidance from teacher,evaluate  the usefulness and limitation of information they collected before. 
3. Determine a focus for the research and narrow the research topic into a smaller scope. 

(a) News

Google News

https://news.google.com/

Google News is a free news aggregator provided and operated by Google, selecting up-to-date news from thousands of newspapers. The main advantages of Google News is that it groups everyone social issue from different publications into one pages. Readers can compare the viewpoints towards the issues from different mass medium.

Wise News

http://kclsksc.wisenews.net/wisecampus/index.do?switch-product=true

Same as Google News, Wises News allows

South China Morning Post, “waste management” page

http://www.scmp.com/topics/waste-management-hong-kong

A special web page in SCMP site which include all news about waste management in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Public Library

http://www.hkpl.gov.hk/en/index.html

(b) Electronic databases or E-books

Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (GREENR)

https://libref.hkpl.gov.hk/eng/new/eng/loginGreenr.shtml

“GREENR” provides you with contents of customizable journals, newspapers and magazines, news, and videos. It is useful resource for your school projects or research on topics related to environmental protection.

Google Books

http://books.google.com/

Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search and Google Print) is a service from Google. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database.

(c) Government Document

Hong Kong Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013 – 2022

http://www.enb.gov.hk/en/files/WastePlan-E.pdf

In May 2013, the Government unveiled the “Hong Kong Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013 – 2022” which maps out a comprehensive strategy, policies and action plans for waste management in the coming 10 years to tackle the imminent waste problem. You may have a full understanding about this issue.

Policy Address

http://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/

Policy address is the annual address by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. The Chief Executive introduce the new development of various policy areas in the Policy Address, including environmental policy. You can  get an overview about the waste management policy from 1997 to now.

Environmental protection Department, waste page

http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/waste/waste_maincontent.html

Environmental protection department(EPD) is one of the government departments which implementing environmental policy in Hong Kong. The above link provides many useful facts and figures about waste management in Hong Kong.  

Waste Reduction Website

https://www.wastereduction.gov.hk/en/

The Target of this website is mainly for general public. We can get some ideas about waste reduction at home, school, workplace and community level.  

How to brainstorm and narrow  your research topic?

Students can use “concept map” to brainstorm ideas and narrow down their research topic. There are many concept-map software that can help students draw concept-map easier and most of them are free.

Free Mind

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download

Free Mind is a concept-Map free software. Students can draw concept-map easier. And the product can be exported as jpg, pdf or html types file.

How to search information more effective?

Many online resources, for example, Google, YouTube, WiseNews,. etc., provide keyword searching function. Therefore, teachers should introduce students to some searching skills. It can help them to find information they need easier. The following websites provide web searching online tutorial for students:

Principles of Web Searching

http://vivo.cornell.edu/display/individual4892

Very comprehensive introduction to how the Web is constructed and how the search tools work. Sections on Robot-Assembled Databases, Human-Assembled Databases, Subject-Based Databases, Multiple Search Engine Interfaces and more. Links to the search engines described in the article, along with their strengths and weaknesses.

How to be a Web Hound (Maricopa CC) http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/webhound/index.html

A fun tutorial to get you started with Web surfing and searching. Sections on: Scouting the Range, Scoping the Search, Using Your Tools, Starting Points, and Searching with Engines. Handy worksheets accompany each section—for you to print out and use to help structure your search.