1. What question did you try to answer?
How do CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) affect the ozone layer?
2. What search engines did you use?
I used Google as my first search engine because I am very familiar and comfortable with using it. I also used Yahoo! as my second search engine because I am less familiar with using it.
3. What search terms did you use?
1. Chlorofluorocarbons affect ozone layer
2. Chlorofluorocarbons or ozone layer
4. How many results did you get when you entered your terms? How many did you get when you used "or"? Which set was bigger? Can you figure out why?
1. Chlorofluorocarbons affect ozone layer
Google results-496,000
Yahoo! results- 1,150,000
2. Chlorofluorocarbons or ozone layer
Google results-197,00
Yahoo results-1,150,000
The Yahoo! results with "or" was the bigger set of results. The word "or" in my search made the results expand because it responds to the two components of "CFC" and "ozone layer" as two individual searches instead of one which resulted in a wider search with more results.
Evaluation-www.epa.gov/ozone/science/sc_fact.html
I used what I think are the three most important evaluation elements to consider when researching on the web.
*Authority and credibility-who published the web page and are they accredited or endorsed by a reputable organization?
*The currency of the website-when the page was last updated
*The relevancy of the information to my search
1. What conclusion did you draw about the value of the site and why?
My conclusion of the value of the site is that it is credible, useful, and factual information. The website produced by the "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency" which makes me believe the site is using factual information.
2. Having conducted this research activity, what questions came into your mind that you would use to continue your exploration?
When conducting this search, I began thinking of how such basic everydy things my household uses like hairspray, can damage the ozone layer by making holes. With that information, I would want to continue by learning "what other basic items causes these ozone holes by releasing CFC's and how can I avoid using them?"
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Great question!
ReplyDeleteInteresting results. Of course, you weren't comparing apples and apples because of the word "affect." Also, I don't think the search engines recognized your boolean operator OR as a boolean operator because it's not in capital letters. I think it searched it as a word. I think your searches were done like this:
Chlorofluorocarbons AND affect AND ozone AND layer
Chlorofluorocarbons AND or AND ozone AND layer
although the systems may have ignored the or altogether because it may be a "stop" word, one they eliminate from searches.
You'll note that your yahoo results are the same in number--that's a tip-off.
As for your Google results, I'm not sure about them. Still need to think about that one.
Essentially, if you do the same searches, e.g. in google--
Chlorofluorocarbons ozone layer
178,000 results
Chlorofluorocarbons OR ozone layer
1,760,000
OR IS MORE, as I pointed out on the PowerPoints.
Your evaluation and questions are great.