Supplies needed:

• a large bag of candy, including hard candy, lollipops, Tootsie Rolls, and Tootsie Pops. (You will have to specially select what kind of candy to include so this exercise works properly).

• students capable of resisting the temptation to eat the candy before completing the exercise

Description:

I usually set this exercise up with an analogy, comparing the large bag of candy to the number of web pages available on the Internet.

"I can't eat this entire bag of candy", I say.  "And you don't want every web site available on your topic.  You only want a few good ones.  You want to be selective, just like I'm selective about the candy I eat."

Give the bag of candy to a group of students.  Tell them that you're very fond of orange-flavored candy and ask them to sort out the orange-flavored candies.  They should find both orange-flavored hard candies, lollipops, and Tootsie Pops.

Tell them that you can't eat all that candy and that you will be more selective.  Ask them to pick out the candy that is both orange-flavored and that has some chocolate in it. At this point, they should be selecting only the orange-flavored Tootsie Pops which have a chocolate center.

Point out how your insistence on these two concepts (orange and chocolate) helped to narrow the focus of the search, resulting in fewer candies which you can now eat without making yourself sick.  Remind them of how they feel after unsuccessfully viewing 10,000 web pages (you'll get a lot of knowing nods here) and encourage them to be demanding and selective when searching for sources.

Hand out some candy to your helpful students, but be sure to replace the candy for your next class!

Time needed in class:  10 minutes, tops

Learning Outcomes: