Using Encarta Researcher with Students
For specifics on using the features of Researcher, please see the Tutorial Directions.
Encarta Researcher is a tool that allows teachers to carefully support students as
they conduct research.
However, its best practice involves steps before and after the use of a computer.
Finding the Question: Students’ initial research should be guided by an Essential question that can
then be broken down into supporting questions to direct their inquiries.
For example:
Biography: How do the events of one person’s life influence our own?
Puget Sound: What makes Puget Sound cities unique from one another and in general?
Industrial Revolution: How are the effects of the Industrial Revolution still being felt today?
Choosing the Task: Using these questions as a guide, a Task should be created that will be
meaningful for students and that will ask them to create new information (see 50 Ways to Leave Your
Book Report for great task ideas)
Examples:
Talk Show Biography: Students will become the person they are researching and take part in a
talk-show interview where they have created both the host’s questions and their own answers
Destination Puget Sound: Students will create travel brochures and then make presentations to
their class highlighting the unique aspects of their city.
Industrial Revolution Editorial: Students will write 19th century editorials on the immediate
outcomes of the Industrial Revolution and make predictions for these outcomes’ future effects
Building the Research Structure: With Essential and Guiding questions defined and an evocative
task chosen, students are ready to design research questions or to use those designed by a teacher.
Please note: Researcher can be scaffolded this way for all grade levels
These questions can be entered directly into Encarta Researcher:
Open Explorer and click the Encarta Researcher tool button to open its sidebar menu
Click on Project>New Project
Save the Project with the Topic Name(example) “Biography” “Puget Sound” “Industrial Revolution”
Click on Project>New Section to add folders for each supporting question that students will research.
For example if students were going to undertake the Talk-Show Biography task, some supporting
questions might be:
What era did this person live in?
What challenges did this person face?
What accomplishments did this person have?
What are the connections to our lives?
What did/does this person look like? (for graphics)
Scaffolded templates of this kind are important to use as students learn a new skill, but they should
also involve a gradual release of responsibility by the teacher as students become more comfortable
with the process.
Sub Sections can be added to further break down the organization of information
To Save an Encarta Researcher file as a TEMPLATE
Exit Explorer and find the Researcher file
Right click on the file>Properties
Click Read-only
For students to use a Researcher Template
Have students navigate to the Researcher file and open it
Have students Save As… to rename and save in their own file (if they do not do this
step the will not be able to make changes to the file)
Gathering the Research: Have students look at specific websites or use Advanced Searches in
comprehensive Search Engines. Include non-digital sources by using “New Note” for material from
books, periodicals and other materials. See the Researcher Tutorial for more information on citation
support for such additions.
Please Note: Using the “Search the Web for” from the Researcher home page is not recommended
because the advertisements it generates.
Thinking about the Research: Have students annotate their collected materials in stages as they
research by using the “Edit” feature on each note card. This is a great way to practice summarizing
skills and to ask students to think about each piece of information and then synthesize it into a
schematic meaning of their own.
From a KSD teacher who uses Researcher with her students:
“You could have students delete the original information after summarizing it into their own
words, however, I usually choose to have my students keep the copied text above their
summary to give me a better understanding of how well they did extracting meaningful
information from the nonfiction text.
I may have them highlight or italicize either the copied information or their STUDENT SUMMARY
so we can distinguish one from another. IF you do delete the original info during the EDIT
phase, you’ll find when you build your report the footnote is still cited on the source and
bibliography!”
Karen Marez, Covington Elementary
Building the Report: This could be a piece a teacher would collect from students as a "checkpoint"
for feedback before the students move on to the real task. It would be a good way to confirm that
students have collected the necessary information. Students would then be ready to use this research
to engage in the task designed by their teacher.
Engaging in the Task: Going back to the Talk Show Biography example, students would begin
taking the different sections of their research and synthesizing that information to fit the task. For that
particular project, students would construct “Talk Show” questions and answers that could be used for
their appearance as the individual that they had researched.
Again, Encarta Researcher is a great way to support students as they collect and organize
information. However, for this tool to be most effective, it needs to be integrated into a
comprehensive structure of Project Planning.
Additional Resources:
Rethinking the Research Report
http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/IT/TSC/rethink_report/
Technology Integration: Unit Planning Process
http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/curriculum/tech/proj_plan.html