Bringing Research
Back from the
(Un)Dead:
Zombies and
Discovery Learning
Christina Dent
Cate Hirschbiel &
Esther Roth-Katz
Emerson College
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Image Credit: http://englishcollective.org/
Zombie Apocalypse
WR121
Research
Workshop
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Mission #2:
Information
Become an
Overload?
Information
Overlord
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Possible Topics
• How are cell phones impacting family relations?
• Sex in Young Adult novels
• How has gaining success as an amateur musician
changed thanks to YouTube?
• Is divorce a failure?
• What are the health risks of e-cigarettes and how
is this conveyed to consumers?
• M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender is a bad
representation of the original animated series
Discuss Your Findings from Mission 2
• Advanced Search Features
• Ways you modified
keywords
Mission
#3: for better
resultsShare Information
• What resources you found (books, articles,
other resources) and how you found them
• Which search tools you liked or disliked,
and why
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What’s
changed?
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Why zombies?
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Assessment
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Questions?
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Students will be able to:
• Modify keywords, synonyms, and related
topics that describe the research question to
get better results
• Use the most common features of information
retrieval systems to locate and retrieve
relevant resources
• Assess the quantity, quality, and relevance of
search results to determine whether alternative
information retrieval systems or investigative
methods should be used
Image Credits
“Zombies 018” by Thierry Ehrmann
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“Bored Student”
www.englishcollective.org
“Coffee and Moleskine III” by Lost in Scotland
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“Zombie Walk 2012” by Gianluca Ramalho Misiti
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“Overwhelmed” by Alex Welch
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“Sharing Chocolate” by OakleyOriginals
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“Change Happens” by Adam Bartlett
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“Zombies YT Poster 2” by Marc-André Caron
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“Measuring Cup” by homespothq
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“A Zombie-Mummy Trinket Guarding Questions” by Raymond Bryson
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Select Bibliography
Hiebert, Jean, and Shelly Theriault. “BLASTing the Zombies!”
College & Research Libraries News 73.9 (2012): 540–569.
Print.
Johnson, Margeaux, Amy G. Buhler, and Chris Hillman. “The
Library Is Undead: Information Seeking During the Zombie
Apocalypse.” Journal of Library Innovation 1.2 (2010): 29–43.
PDF.
Kelley, Michael. “Using the Living Dead To Teach Information
Literacy.” LibraryJournal.com 30 Mar. 2011.
Stahura, Dawn, and Erin Milanese. “Teaching with Zombies.”
College & Research Libraries News 74.7 (2013): 354–356.
Print.
Tay, Aaron. “Zombies and Libraries - How Are Libraries Using the
Zombie Theme?” Musings about librarianship 27 May 2013.
Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
Tompkins, Jane. "Pedagogy of the Distressed." College
English 52.6 (1990): 653-660. Print.