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Genocide Research: The Webquest
Introduction:  Night tells the true story of a young man, Elie Wiesel, who survives the Holocaust during the 1930s and 40s.  In recent years, some have erroneously claimed that the Holocaust did not occur as history recorded it.  As time passes, there are fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors to dispute these claims.  Fortunately, first hand accounts, such as Night, help ensure that students understand and remember what really happened.  

In addition to the Holocaust, genocide continues to occur in recent history around the globe.   Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan are the next countries we will study.  Today, try to find research about the country that you were assigned and the genocide that occurred there.

Process:  Follow the steps below to complete your research and this webquest.  The resources that you find will help you with the next assignment: your research paper.
  • Getting ready to work…
Open Word on your computer.  Start a new, blank document for this webquest.

Copy and paste this table to your document on the next line after your topic.

1.  What do you know?   2.  What do you want to know? 3.  What have you learned?
I know I’m researching ____, and genocide occurred there.    

This is called a KWL.  In the first box, you need to write what you know (or at least what you think you know—after research, you may find out that some of your previous assumptions were incorrect, and that’s okay) about the term “genocide”, and what occurred in the countries above.

In the next box, write three questions about what you are hoping to find out about genocide and your assigned country.  This will help guide your research.

The last box you will return to when you are finished with this entire process.  This is where you will (hopefully) answer your own questions later.
  • Let the research begin!  I know you know how to use Google, so let’s start there and then try out a few other websites…
  1. Go to www.google.com.  Type in your country and genocide, with the AND part in all capital letters, like this: Cambodia AND genocide.  How many hits did you get?  Type that number as the answer to #4.  Because you probably found a ton of stuff, it makes it hard to sift through what is really useful for research and what is junk.  That’s why we are going to try a few other reliable places to search.
  2. Try Wikipedia to find a general article and picture about your topic.  An encyclopedia site is a good place to get some basic information.  After skimming through the article, what was it about?  Type a very brief summary (sentence or two), or copy and paste some of the highlights.
  3. Copy the URL (website address) of the website for the answer to this question so you can find this page again later if you need it, but also check out  “cite this article” in the toolbox on the left hand side.  If you decide to use this article in your research, you can use the MLA information from the page.  This is the information that Mr. Foster will require on the Works Cited page of your research paper if you use this article.
For the next resource, try Newsbank at INFOhio.  Go to 9-12 resources, and click the Newsbank.  This is a database of newspaper articles.  If you check to see the oldest articles first, you might find articles that were printed as the genocide occurred.  Try to type in part of the question/s you had for the W section of your KWL as a search term for more specific results.    
  1. What is the article about?  Give a brief summary or copy and paste highlights.
  2. Copy the URL so that you can find it again later.
Now, try checking Librarian's Internet Index for your topic.  This is a search engine (like google), but you won’t get as many hits and the ones that you do get, should be reliable resources.  Choose one of the resources that you find here to complete #s 10-11.
  1. What is this web site about?  Type a brief summary or copy and paste highlights.
  2. Copy the URL.
For the remaining online resources, try the Student Research Center at INFOhio (go to 9-12 resources, and click EBSCOhost in the first column).   This is a great database where you can find journal articles, newspaper articles, and all sorts of resources.  In the search window, type genocide AND ________ (your country), with the capital AND, and you will get articles that are about both genocide and your country.  Add in a keyword that you had from the W section of your KWL for more specific information.
  1. You know what goes here…brief summary/highlights.
  2. Copy the URL.
The last step of your research for this webquest is to look on the book cart (which has books from Hurt/Battelle) and check our library catalog for books about your topic.  To check our catalog, go to the school website, click media center, and click the catalog page.  Click OPAC, which is the catalog.
  1. Did you find any print (book) resources?  If so, how many from Hurt/Battelle and how many from here?  Type the book titles.
Now, go back to #3 of your KWL.  Have you be able to answer any of your questions?  Write five things that you’ve learned from your research about your topic.
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