Year IV students’ blog for Internet Education

Thesis Statement:

Is the effect of the harvesting of non-wood forest products good or bad for the environment?

It only took me less than 2 minutes to search a source for my synthesis paper.

Non-Wood Forest Products are products of biological origin other than wood derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests. It can also be gathered from the wild, or produced in forest plantations, agroforestry schemes and from trees outside forests. Examples of these include products used as food and food additives (edible nuts, mushrooms, fruits, herbs, spices and condiments, aromatic plants, game), fibres (used in construction, furniture, clothing or utensiles), resins, gums, and plant and animal products used for medicinal, cosmetic or cultural purposes.

Celesta, Lacuna-Richman. “Ethnicity and the Utilization of Non-Wood Forest Products: Findings from Three Philippine Villages”. [Internet] 19, Nov, 2008.

http://www.meta.fi/silvafennica/full/sf37/sf371129.pdf

Source from Library: none

Time taken: 30 mins.

Thesis Statement: Sustainable development is obtainable

What is sustainable development?

Library

Sustainable development is a broad concept referring to the need to balance the satisfaction of near-term interests with the protection of the interests of future generations, including their interests in a safe and healthy environment.

Time: 13 minutes

Internet

Sustainable development is development that ensures that the use of resources and the environment today does not restrict their use by future generations.

Time: 3 minutes

“What is sustainable development? ” [Online] 19 Nov 2008. http://www.translationdirectory.com/glossaries/glossary027.htm

Thesis Statement: Caffeine has bad effects

Internet: 20 seconds

Caffeine is a bitter white crystalline xanthine that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic (speeds up urine production) in humans and other animals.

Library: none

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Mary L. Gavin, MD. Caffein And Your Child. 12 Nov 08. http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/caffeine.html

Thesis Statement:Vitamin C helps lessen Arsenic in our system.

HL-60

Internet : 2 minutes

The HL-60 (Human promyelocytic leukemia cells) cell line is a leukemic cell line that has been used for laboratory research on how certain kinds of blood cells are formed.

Wikipedia. HL-60.[Online] 12 Nov 2008.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HL60

Library : -

None

As you discovered in the Library vs. Internet exercise, using search engines like Google presents the key advantages of the internet in retrieving information: It’s faster than a library search; you get more materials and more content types (e.g., links, images, video, etc.); it’s easier to include or insert gathered data in your work (cut-and-paste, copy-and-paste) without the tedium of having to manually encode text or make your own illustrations; citing references becomes a breeze for online submissions; etc.

The downside to all these is that “faster,” “more” and “easier” do not necessarily mean “better.”

Realize that Googling or retrieving any information online:

• Does not guarantee the accuracy of information gathered;
• Tends to promote laziness or, worse, plagiarism; and
• Is a tool to help develop, and not a substitute for, your personal inputs.

What can you do to improve your work, with search engines as a tool?

• Read what you retrieve. Understand what you read.
• Evaluate the accuracy of the data. Check on the reliability of the source website.
• Attribute sources properly.
• Write more than the amount of material you download. Paraphrase whenever you can.