Search Engines: Ready, Set, Search! Jennifer Hey-Lewis Kenwood Academy, Chicago Public Schools IIT Research Mentor: Dr. Wai Gen Yee This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant No. EEC Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Overview Pre-Algebra Middle Grades 7-8 Time requirement: Approximately 8 45 minutes class periods. Objective –Content- As a result of participating in this project, students will gain a better understanding of the field of engineering and its connections to mathematics and science. In addition, students will gain a better understanding of how search engines work and how to evaluate the quality of results of a search engine query. –Inquiry/Problem Solving –Design –Ethics

Background Websites with information on various careers in engineering example: Websites with information on ethics, ethical decision making What is Technology worksheet Information on Search Engines, related technical terms Information on wikis Windows Movie Maker Tutorial Information on Search Engines Web Search Engine - Web Crawler - Term Frequency/Inverse Document Frequency (TF/IDF) -

Examples Examples of computing measures of central tendency, graphing, Understanding/ Calculating TF/IDF Movie Maker Movie Wiki -

Project Lessons: 1.What is Technology? – Bell Ringer activity where students identify and define examples of technology 2.Research various fields of engineering. Students will work in groups to research different fields of engineering. Each group will present one field in the form of a “movie” (using Windows Movie Maker or Power Point ). 3.Create a Code of Ethics as a student in Pre-Algebra Class; including group and individual work. 4.Students would work in groups of three. Read an ethical scenario or watch You Tube clip, apply ethical decision making process and act out their response. Scenarios will range from situations they encounter as students to situations adults encounter in the work place. 5.Students will work in groups. Each group will use several different search engines to do a search on a particular topic of their choosing. Students will collect a variety of statistics related to their searches. Students will compare results, calculate the Spearman Foot Rule distance, and create graphs, Results of each group will be compiled and shared on a class wiki.

Project 6. Design your own search engine – students will design their own search engine and describe how it works. 7. Redesign a common household item- students will examine several household items and work through the process of redesigning it.

Lesson 1 What is Technology? Topic: Defining Technology Goal: Students will be able to explain what technology is and understand that technology is a way of solving problems through applying knowledge from many disciplines Activity: - The first activity involves classroom discussion and a short scenario to allow students to develop a sense of what technology is and to dispel the notion that technology relates mostly to computers. After completing this lesson, students will be able to explain what technology is and understand that technology is a way of solving problems through the application of knowledge from multiple disciplines.

Lesson 2 Engineering as a Career Topic: Engineering Goal: Students will gain an understanding of a chosen field of engineering and how to prepare for a career in that field. Activity: Students will work in groups of two or three. They will select or be assigned a field of engineering to research. Each group will be responsible for presenting a Power Point presentation on their findings. The presentation must contain basic information on the chosen field of engineering, career possibilities, salary and job outlook, as well as high school preparation required. Students will also research colleges and universalities offering majors in the field as well as the requirements for gaining entrance into the college program.

Lesson 3 Ethics Topic: Ethics Goal: Students will be able to explain what ethics is and apply it to the classroom environment. Students will create a code of ethics for the classroom. Activity: Begin with a classroom discussion on ethics. What are they? Who uses them? Do we need them? The class will create a code of ethics to guide them as students in the classroom for the school year. Students will also have to research other professions that have a code of ethics and explain the importance of the code for that profession.

Lesson 4 Ethical Decision Making Topic: Making Ethical Decisions Goal: Students will use a format for ethical decision making to make ethical decisions Activity: Students will review the format for making ethical decision. Students can either watch a You Tube scenario or a read a written scenario dealing with an ethical decision that must be made. In groups, students will make a decision following the ethical decision making process and report their decision and explain their process to the group.

Lesson 5 Search Engines Topic: How do Search Engines Work Goal: Students will understand how search engines work and be able to analze their effectiveness. Activity :- Students will learn how search engines work, compare the effectiveness of two different search engines and apply mathematical concepts to the searching process. Student will use the Spearman Foot Rule Distance to compare the results of their two searches. Students will complete a precision at N graph to measure the percentage of search results that are relevant (close to 1). Students will post their work to a class wiki page and be responsible for peer-reviewing another group’s work.

Lesson 6 Search Engine Design Topic: Search Engine Design Goal: Students will use knowledge gained from their study of search engines to create their own. Activity: Students will design their own search engine and draw a model for the class. They must explain how it works.

Lesson 7 Household Item Redesign Topic: Engineering Goal: Students will synthesize all of the information gained through their study of technology, ethics and engineering to redesign an everyday object. Activity:- Students will select an everyday object and redesign it to make it “work” better taking things such as cost effectiveness, ethics and engineering into account. They will create a drawing of their object and share it with the class.

Connections to Illinois Learning Standards Illinois Learning Standards English Goal 3 – 3.B.3a – Produce documents that convey a clear understanding and interpretation of ideas and information. Goal 4- 4.B.3b – Design multi-media compositions that represent group projects Math Goal 10 –10.A.3a,b- Construct graphs and charts to organize and represent data. Compare mean, median, mode, 10.B.3-Formulate questions devise and conduct experiments and gather data, Science Goal B3a,b-Identify and explain ways that scientific knowledge and economics drive technological development. Identify contributions to science and technology that have been made by individuals and groups from various cultures. Social and Emotional Goal 1 Goal 2 – 2A.3b –Analyze how one’s behavior may affect others Goal 3- 3A.4a- Demonstrate personal responsibility in making ethical decisions

Materials Computer/Internet access Windows Movie Maker LCD projector Flash drives Various worksheets Microsoft Power Point Microsoft Excel Household items

Assessment Describe what concepts you plan to assess. Mathematical concepts, engineering topics, and ethics Describe how you plan to assess your students. Pre-Post test to assess general information learned throughout module. Each activity/performance/product will have its own assessment

Module Development Plan Week 2: Week 3: Week 4: Present progress report 7/14/08 Week 5:7/21/08 Week 6: Finish module - Rehearse presentation Week 7: Present module at the RET Workshop