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“The Concord Monitor” 2010 Research Quiz Project

A Project About “Searching” for the Correct Information.

Thomas H

March 11 – 17, 2016

Green Group

This is a quiz that was found in the Sunday January 3 2010 Concord Monitor newspaper…. Answers are there, too. You need to read the question, and… if you KNOW the correct answer, that’s good… but you must still VERIFY that correct answer. And write out your source for that correct answer. And, MOST importantly, I want to you also write out your thinking process- especially for the questions you do NOT know the answer to. Can you eliminate any of the answers? How? And how did you search for the correct answer? Did you search the QUESTION, or did you search the possible answers?

Write it out! Be complete. A good paragraph per answer is what we are after here…

Use Google AND Bing and at least 2 other search engines... any search engine you desire. In your paragraphs, write down which search engine you used.

Use Search Terms that make sense. Do NOT just type/copy the entire question. Use Search Terms. Use search terms that make sense. In your paragraph, write down what search terms you used.

Use Advanced Search methods, or at least look for .edu sites, .gov sites and .com sites. At LEAST these 3 types of sites. You can have others, such as .org and .net. In your paragraph, write down how you searched for different domains (such as .edu, .gov .com, etc. Those are called “domains”.)

And... write down the correct answer in the paragraph. Perhaps that is the last sentence in your paragraph.

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1. What are the three places that make up the points of the Bermuda Triangle?

a. Bahamas, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico

b. Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Tortola

c. Miami, Bermuda, Puerto Rico

I am going to use Google for my search engine. Google is a trusted search engine, and comes to mind first and is easy to get to and I have used it for the longest time. My keywords are ‘Bermuda Triangle location’. I decided not to scroll through the 408,000 results about the location of the Bermuda Triangle. I looked through the first few and I found one that I like and gave me the answer… it was http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bermudatri.html. The correct answer is c, Miami, Bermuda, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Recife is the popular, pretty capital of Pernambuco state in what country?

a. Italy

b. Spain

c. Brazil

Before I searched the inter-webs for the answer… I already knew it. I know that Italy and Spain do not have states, so it had to be Brazil. But nonetheless I decided to use the search engine DuckDuckGo, because it is a search engine that I know about. It also doubles as an incognito browser. My search was ‘where is pernambuco’. I got quite a few results. I visited http://www.brazil.org.za/pernambuco.html to find my answer. And I got it. It told me Pernambuco was a state in Brazil with its capital being Recife. So, the answer is C.

Historic Nara, Japan, celebrates a huge anniversary in 2010. How old is the country’s first capital city?

a. 570 years (in 2010)

b. 1,300 years (in 2010)

c. 4,000 years (in 2010)

I had no clue what the answer was to this question prior to searching it up. But, I do have a guess. I know that China has had inhabitants for a long time. So, 570 years was way too long for them to sail over to the island. But 4,000 years was too long. So, 1,300 years was just right. So, I decided to use Bing to find the answer because it is the second most used search engine. My keywords were ‘2010 nara anniversary’. 51,100,000 results!!! Wow. A lot to choose from. But, I picked http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/travel/03headsup.html?_r=0 the New York Times. The headline was my answer. “Happy 1,300^th to Nara, Japan”. So, the answer is B, 1,300. My prediction was correct.

The Northern Pacific Gyre lies in the Pacific Ocean between Japan and the west coast of the United States. What does it contain?

a. A huge pod of an estimated 2,000 endangered gray whales

b. A giant debris field of garbage trapped in a spinning circle

c. An underground sea mountain 7 miles tall

Don’t know this one either… but I do have a guess. I have not heard of a large pod of whales…or a large sea mountain… in the Pacific. But I have heard of a large trash pile. So, my guess is B. I decided to use ixquick (the search engine) because it does not track searches. My search was ‘northern pacific gyre’. I saw a Wikipedia link so I used it, because I trust Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch . It says there is a large trash pile in the Gyre, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Which leads me to believe the answer is B.

This year (in 2010) a mosaic of an angel was discovered under the floor of the Hagia Sophia. Where and what is the Hagia Sophia?

a. Istanbul, Turkey. It’s a museum that previously was a Byzantine Christian Church and a mosque.

b. Luxembourg. It’s a cathedral built to honor St. Sophia, the country’s patron saint.

c. Mexico City. It’s a traditional market where the image of the angel is said to have healing powers.

For number 5, we are going to do this one very very very very differently. We are going to use 4 different search engines and compare the results. I don’t have a clue about this one. I used, ixquick, google, Bing, and dogpile. My search on all four was ‘Hagia Sophia location’. Bing and Google gave me answers before I even searched. All four of them had Wikipedia in the first two results. Ixquick also gave me good answers. But dogpile had a large ad and a distracting background that made it hard to find a good result. I think I like Google or Ixquick best. One result that popped out on all but Ixquick was http://www.hagiasophia.com/ Hagia Sophia.com. It told me that Hagia Sophia is located in Istanbul. So the answer is a, Istanbul, Turkey. It’s a museum that previously was a Byzantine Christian Church and a mosque.

If you want to go whitewater rafting on the Kampar River, where do you have to go?

a. Wheeling, West Virginia.

b. Gopeng, Malaysia

c. Johannesburg, South Africa

I am going to use Google for this question. I am going to use an advanced search, by[TH1] [TH2] [TH3] [TH4] [TH5] [TH6] [TH7] [TH8] [TH9] limiting the domain results. Before searching for the answer, I am going to guess the Kampar River is in Gopeng, Malysia because of the way the name sounds. I am going to use the search terms ‘kampar river location’. I only searched for .org domains. I got 14,100 results. I found a website that I like, http://photo.greenpeace.org/archive/Kampar-River-Forest-and-Destruction-27MZIF200EEC.html . It mentioned the Kampar River in Indonesia. But, I know that Malaysia is very close to Indonesia, and nowhere near West Virginia or Johannesburg. So, the answer is b, Gopeng, Malaysia.

Most tourists love Devonshire cream tea – scones, clotted cream and raspberry jam with tea. But where in England is Devonshire?

a. In dairy country east of London

b. Southwest England

c. Near the Scottish border

I do not know enough about Devonshire, or England for that matter, to know where it is. But luckily this project is about searching for these things on the internet. So, I am going to use Google for this question. I will use the terms ‘where is Devonshire’ to find the answer, and I only searched for the .org domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devon was the link I clicked on. It had a map of where Devonshire, and it was in the Southwest corner of England. So, the answer is b, Southwest England.

What and where are the Adirondacks?

a. The Amish region in Indiana where craftsmen make chairs

b. Mountain range in New York state

c. American Indian reservations in the Florida Everglades

I already know the answer to this… the Adirondacks are a mountain range in New York state. But I am still being forced to write this whole paragraph about how I search for an unneeded answer. I might as well change it up again and use Ixquick. ‘where are the Adirondacks site:*.com’ are my search terms. I went to http://visitadirondacks.com/about/mountains and it gave me the answer in the first paragraph. I saw many words like mountain and New York. The answer is b, a mountain range in New York State.

Most people just call the region the Caribbean, but what is its formal name?

a. The West Indies

b. The East Indies

c. The South Indies

I am going to use Google as my search engine. My keywords were ‘Caribbean formal name:*.com’. There were not any results popping out on me… so I then Googled the three Indies and only the West Indies mentioned anything about the Caribbean. I found one website that finally gave me the answer though: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/carib.htm So… my guess would be that the answer is a, the West Indies.

Almost all tourists who visit the Galapagos Islands leave for their trip from what city?

a. Quito, Ecuador

b. Santiago, Chile

c. La Paz, Bolivia

I have no guess. I will use Google again because there is not enough time to think of another search engine. My search will be ‘how to get to the Galapagos:*.com’. 2,590,000 results! I picked through some of them and I found the perfect one: http://www.galapagosislands.com/blog/how-to-get-to-the-galapagos-islands/ this told me that you needed to travel to Quito, Ecuador. In that case the answer is a, Quito, Ecuador.

What was the United States’ first national park?

a. Great Smoky Mountain

b. Yellowstone

c. Yosemite

I am going to use Google for this question as well. My guess would be Great Smoky Mountain… because it sounds old. But I will use an advanced search… as I have been for the last 6 questions. ‘United States’ first national park site:*.org’ were my search terms. I came across https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_parks_of_the_United_States that had a list of all national parks. Yellowstone was the oldest, being established in 1870.

Of Hawaii’s six major islands, which is the smallest and least developed?

a. Lili’uokalani

b. Kauai

c. Lanai