Sweet Search

Sweet Search is the perfect tool for students to use when searching the Internet.  It's so great to give students the opportunity to do their own research for school assignments, but often their searches result in inappropriate and unreliable sources.  With Sweet Search, students are directed to the types of websites that are worth exploring, especially for their age level.  

When I was student teaching in a 4th grade class, I taught a unit on Inventions.  My students used the Internet a lot when they were learning about cool inventions and researching information for their Inventor Biographies.  I did a quick search on Sweet Search for "inventions" and there were wonderful, informative, and reliable websites that I could explore. 

I did some more exploring on the Sweet Search homepage and found great resources for teaching social studies.  I could specify what type of subject I wanted to read about, so to test it out, I chose "The 50 States."  There were plenty of resources available for multiple grade levels.  There is also a Sweet Search page on Biographies, which could have been extra helpful during my biography writing unit.  Students can filter their searches for different type of people and find well written biographies that they could use for research.  

There is also a Daily web round-up page called SweetSearch2Day in which several fun links are posted daily, which include facts about the day, birthdays, then links like comics or articles.  This would be a great tool to direct students to when they "don't know what to do."  It could be like an anchor activity, in which students find a website to write a reflection on. 

TARGET: All ages, any grade level.

PURPOSE:  Provide a safe and reliable search engine for students to find websites that are learner friendly.

USABILITY:  Very!  The colorful interface makes the webpage inviting, and the links are very self-explanatory.  This will be a great go-to for student research and lesson planning for myself.