The Paper Towel Experiment
Possible key words:
• Paper towel
• Absorbency
• Hydrophilic
• Strength
• Effectiveness
• Experiment
• Types and styles (one ply, two ply, quilted, recycled)
• Fibers
• Specific brand names (Bounty, Brawny, Just the Basics
[Walmart],
Check out books.
Access your school library catalog
called DESTINY Quest Library Search
in school from the Student Turtlenet
Page or the TASD Library Resources
web site page and from home at:
http://destiny.tulpehocken.org
Try Ebsco eBooks- a POWER Library database
Use an encyclopedia for an overview
of your subject.
• Use a print encyclopedia set or an online
encyclopedia.
Try http://www.britannica.com/
Write down all your sources as you use them!
This will save you much time later on.
Use the Dictionary
• Understand your keywords.
• Look for synonyms and related words to help
you in your search for information.
www.thefreedictionary.com
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary
In School: Click on the POWER Library link on your Student Turtlenet Page
or Click on the POWER Library Link on the Student TASD Web Site
From Home: Go to your local library web page. Click on the RESOURCE Tab.
Use your library card or apply for an e-number which will be sent to your
email. Record the number for future use!
USE POWER LIBRARY DATABASES AT
HOME AND IN SCHOOL
POWER Library
• Use Access PA, also known as Find a Book.
• It is an interlibrary loan program unique to
Pennsylvania.
• Search the electronic catalog.
• Request the book from your librarian.
• The book will usually arrive in 5-10 days.
Use the suggested web sites on the
Library Department Web Site
Resources Page
Click on the link on your Student Turtlenet Page“Library Resource Page”
or from your Student TASD Web Site Page
www.tulpehocken.org>Our Schools>Tulpehocken JuniorSenior High School>Department>Library>Access to
Library Resources
OR go to
http://www.tulpehocken.org/library.aspx
Use Various Search Engines
• Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com
• Sweet Search http://www.sweetsearch.com/
• Science Direct http://sciencedirect.com is a
leading full-text scientific database offering
journal articles and book chapters from nearly
2,500 journals and 26,000 books
Learn how to evaluate web site information!
View a tutorial on web site evaluation
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/webeval_start.html#
Science Resources
• iSeek
http://www.sciseek.com
• Worldwide Science
http://worldwidescience.org/
• Scientific Commons
http://en.scientificcommons.org
• Sci.gov – searches 50 data bases from 13 federal
agencies
http://www.science.gov/
Science Resources
• Scitation
http://scitation.aip.org
• Science Accelerator – Research from the
Department of Energy
http://www.scienceaccelerator.gov
• InfoMine
http://infomine.ucr.edu/
• SciVee: Making Science visible
http://www.scivee.tv/
Citing Sources-MLA or APA
(Your teacher will let you know what is required)
• Start Using Noodletools to organize your notes and
help with citing sources. Go to
www.noodletools.com at home. In school, click on
the Noodletools link on your Student Turtlenet
Page or the Student TASD Page or the Library
Resource Page.
• Sign up for an account. Use your student username
and password for your individual account.
• Enter a project name and begin. There are many
help notes that pop up to assist you.
Citing Sources-MLA or APA
• For guidance for an APA style research paper,
citing and listing resources go to:
• OWL sponsored by Purdue University:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
• http://www.apastyle.org/
Citation Generators:
• Learn How to use NoodleTools. Sign up using your
student username and student account number.
• Use Citation Machine-APA
http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/
APA Format Examples
• Book Format
Author, F. M., & Coauthor, F. M. (Date). Title of the
book or report in sentence caps and italics (xth
ed.). Place of publication, State: Publisher.
APA Format Example
• Web Site
Purdue University Online Writing Lab. (2003).
Using American Psychological Association
(APA) format (Updated to 5th edition).
Retrieved February 18, 2003 from the
Purdue University Online Writing Lab at
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_apa.html
Searching Tips
• There are a number of helpful tips and hints you can
use to improve your search results. For example, you
can use Boolean operators to link terms together; limit
the search to a specific title; and /or restrict the search
• to a particular date range.
Note: Stop words are commonly used words such as
articles, pronouns, and prepositions. These words are
not indexed for searching in the database. For example,
'the', 'for', and 'of' are stop words. When a stop word is
used in a query, any single word or no word is retrieved
in place of the stop word. When searching strings that
contain stop words or a Boolean operator, it is
necessary to use quotation marks.
Searching Tips
• Boolean Operators
• Sometimes a search can be overly general (results
equal too many hits) or overly specific (results
equal too few hits). To fine tune your search, you
can use AND, OR, and NOT operators to link your
search words together. These operators will help
you narrow or broaden your search to better
express the terms you are looking for and to
retrieve the exact information you need quickly.
Searching Tips
• USING THE "AND" OPERATOR: If you have a search
term that is too general, you can append several terms
together using "AND". By stringing key terms together,
you can further define your search and reduce the
number of results. Note: Unless you define a specific
search field, the result list will contain references
where all your search terms are located in either the
• citation, full display or full text.
For example, type emergency preparedness AND
disaster to find results that refer to both high risk and
injury.
Searching Tips
• USING THE "OR" OPERATOR: In order to broaden
a search, you can link terms together by using the
"OR" operator. By using "OR" to link your terms
together you can find documents on many topics.
Linked by this operator, your words are searched
simultaneously and independently of each other.
• As an example, search emergency preparedness
AND disaster OR planning to find results that
contain either the terms "emergency
preparedness" and "disaster", or the term
"planning".
Searching Tips
• USING THE "NOT" OPERATOR: In order to narrow a search,
you can link words together by using the "NOT" operator.
This operator will help you to filter out specific topics you
• do not wish included as part of your search.
Type: emergency preparedness AND disaster NOT
planning to find results that contain the terms "high risk" or
• "injury", but not the term "trauma".
To further define your results, type: emergency
preparedness AND disaster AND planning to constrict the
search to include all terms linked by the "AND" operator.
Searching Tips." EBSCO Help. N.p., EBSCO MasterFILE-Main Edition. Web. 10 Sept.
2014. <http://support.ebsco.com/help/index.php?help_id=DB:797>.