Researching your idea
Libraries, catalogues, brochures and talking to people can all be useful places to start your research, but you may also like to search the Internet.

Internet Research
How can I find the information I want?
There’s a lot of information on the Internet, more than you could look through in an entire lifetime. Search Engines such as Google, AltaVista and Excite allow you to use key words to search for information quickly.

Think about what you’re looking for and make a list of relevant words. Organising your search will save you time, and keep you on the right track. Try different versions of the same word – recycle as well as recycling. You might visit commercial or government sites such as the Australian Conservation Foundation or garden equipment manufacturers.

Remember it is very important to get the spelling right. Computers can’t think for themselves.

There’s no need to waste time, if you can’t find what you’re looking for within fifteen or twenty minutes you could try something else. Encyclopedias and books may provide you with more information, or allow you to search with better key words.

Can you believe everything you read?
Just about anybody can put information on the Internet. Some of this information is accurate, but other stuff is not. How can you tell the difference?

One of the most important questions you have to ask is – who wrote this? If the author is an expert in that field (like a scientist writing about science) it’s probably reliable. But it’s always worth checking with another site to make sure they say much the same things. Books can also be used for cross-referencing to check the accuracy of the information.

If the author doesn’t list any qualifications it doesn’t mean the information is wrong, but you need to be careful. Why did the author write this? Is it just because they’re really interested in scientific stuff, or are they trying to convince readers to agree with what they think? Are they trying to influence you, rather than educate you?

Having decided all that and used the information you need, remember to record the name of the site, just as you would when quoting from books.

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