ICT at key stage 3    (Year 7)

• Discuss the purpose of the exercise and the chosen topic, eg to develop a presentation to explain to parents why the chosen issue is important. Consider what sort of information and tone would be appropriate.
• Ask the class to consider the range of ICT-based information sources that might be available, eg websites on the internet, CD-ROMs, exchanging information with other people via e-mail. Discuss the purpose of these sources, eg who might put the information on the internet or CD-ROM, and how sources could contain different views on the topic, eg the difference between a government's, industry and an environmental group's views.
• Discuss the merits and disadvantages of the different search facilities, making lists with pupils and identifying what might make some sources less useful than others.
• Ask the pupils to make notes on the type of information each source might provide, eg text, graphics, video, and consider the limitations of each for the report.
• Using sites already bookmarked, demonstrate the methods of abstracting information and saving graphics and text rather than printing whole pages. Ensure that pupils know where they should save files so that they can be used for subsequent work.

• Discuss the different type of search mechanisms provided on CD-ROMs and within internet sites, eg the hierarchical structure of a contents facility, site or content 'maps', key word searches, indexes, free-text and Boolean searches. Ask the pupils to define the questions they would like to answer through their research.
• Ask the pupils to investigate their chosen sources and to use the different facilities to find suitable information to answer their questions.
• While the pupils are searching their sources, discuss the approach they have adopted to refine free-text searches and how they can use alternative words to find relevant information. Ask them to continue to search for material from the chosen sources, for their project, saving useful pieces of text and graphics.

• Explain to pupils how to spot connections and links between different forms of information. Demonstrate the use of skimming, scanning, highlighting and note making as appropriate to different texts.
• Ask pupils to record the source of their information, whether it is relevant and whether or not it supports the presentation they are developing, along with any specific data on a topic. Once the pupils have had time to complete a number of searches, the information gathered can be drawn together and they can identify the range of viewpoints and the different statistics. Ask them to discuss some of the reasons for the differences, eg inaccuracies, different methods of calculation, bias.
• Once pupils have found and copied some text they think is useful, discuss the key message to be presented. Illustrate how to search for a key word in the word processor, and how to highlight key phrases or information and copy and paste/move material into an order that will be helpful for the presentation. Pupils can then continue to investigate their own material.

• Discuss with the class the audience and the amount of time and space the pupils have for each presentation, eg the presentation must explain what the parents' role might be in relation to the chosen topic.
• Ask the class how they could present their information, the reason for presenting the information to the audience and discuss the key messages. Illustrate and discuss the issues in producing effective presentations, eg using images as a message and to enhance text, the importance of clear layout, the use of styles and sizes of font, spell checking.