Two-Minute+Fact+Hunt

This is a fun "fact search" exercise that came to me in the middle of the night as many Web 2.0 tools swirled in my brain. You need to combine several tools, and this can be done with students working independently or as teams. Judge the time limit by the age group. Two minutes may be frustrating for some, so feel free to go for three or four minutes.

__PRIOR to using with students, please complete the following:__ 1. Go to [|www.classtools.net] to develop a list of topics. Make sure you save/embed the list once you finalized it. I have an example below. I also learned cuttlefish is spelled with two Ts when no one could find a cuDDlefish! ;-) media type="custom" key="6078795" 2. Create a wallwisher at [|www.wallwisher.com] that is tied to each of your topics so the kids can post their findings. Here are two examples of ones I have done. 

__Explaining the process to the students:__ 1. Have each student/team have a pencil and notebook to record information that will gather. 2. Explain to the students that they will be quickly searching for information on a certain topic connected to science or social studies. 3. It is their job to locate information on the topic and write the facts in their book within the two minute time limit. They need to work for the full time. 4. Work through one example together, and be certain to extend their thinking (EX: Frogs: types of frogs, what frogs eat, lifecycle of frogs, how far a frog can jump, etc) so they all go beyond the obvious facts - encourage deep digging. 5. When time is up, have students single out the most interesting fact they found and have them post it on the wallwisher page associated with the topic. 6. //**Discuss their findings on the topic and strategies for locating specific information - discuss how we can validate the quality of one site over another (National Zoolological Society would be a good site vs. answers.com). Discuss how stringing together words narrows the search ("polar**// //**bears habitat" **// //**is more effective than "where do polar bears live in the world?"​**//