Student Search Engines and Educational Directories

Always use Search Engines as a last resort.  Use Student Start Pages and teacher


recommended bookmarks first.  Try general reference information on the Internet.
Go to Web start pages: reference.htm
or
http://www.lburkhart.com/middle/ref_middle.htm


Check the source of the information that you find:
Confirm information found on this page with another source on or off the Internet.
 
Use simple key words for searching educational Directories.  Use search tricks such as quote marks for phrases, AND, OR and NOT, when using search engines that recognize these.
 
Always use more than one search engine or directory.
Write down the Web address so you can credit the source information in your work.
If you find an inappropriate site, click BACK and notify an adult.

Educational Directories with Search Features
Educational Collections Listed by Categories
Student Safe General Search Engines

Educational Directories with Search Features:


Ed View
http://supersmart.school.apple.com/

These Web sites have been specifically selected for educational use by EdView. Scroll down and click grades 6-8, type a keyword and then click the magnifying glass.

KidsClick!
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
Excellent site created by librarians with a search engine of appropriate educational sites for students.

K-12 INFOMINE Search Screen
http://infomine.ucr.edu/search/k12search.phtml
This is a searchable collection of instructional web sites.

Education Planet - The Education Web Guide
http://www.educationplanet.com/
This is a searchable collection of educational web sites.  Uncheck the boxes except for web sites and maybe maps.

Education World
http://db.education-world.com/
Large web site of educational links and a search engine feature to search these links.

SuperKids SuperSearch
http://www.super-kids.com/
This is a collection of educational web sites with a search feature as well as categories.

Awesome Library - Education Search Engine
http://www.neat-schoolhouse.org/searche.html
Database of 110,000+ sites related to educational topics.

Awesome Library - K-12 Education Directory for Kids
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/student.html
Search engine with a kids category.  (limited results)

Blue Web'n Refined Search
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/search.html
Search engine of good educational sites, with ratings and grade levels.  However, this is a fairly small database, so use one or two keywords only.

StudyWeb
http://www.studyweb.com/
Doesn't give descriptions with first search results and some terms were hard to guess at the relevance.  But the next level gives good descriptions of sites with ratings and approximate grade level provided.

ThinkQuest
http://library.thinkquest.org/library/index.html
This is a collection of educational sites created by middle and high school students for the ThinkQuest Contest.



Educational Collections Listed by Categories


Internet Public Library: Teen Division
http://www.ipl.org/teen/

Ed's Treasure Zone - Cross-Curricular Sites
http://www.EDsOasis.org/Treasure/treasCx.html
 



Student-Safe General Search Engines:


OneKey - The Kid Safe Search Engine
http://www.onekey.com/
Search engine with a large database of kid-safe sites.

AOL NetFind Kids Only
http://www.aol.com/netfind/kids/home.html
A search engine that links only to sites that are safe for kids.

Yahooligans!
http://www.yahooligans.com/
Child-safe search engine.  Not reviewed for educational relevancy.

Searchopolis
http://www.searchopolis.com/
Sites found were screened for inappropriate language etc., but not for educational relevance.  A lot
of commercial and advertising sites were found.

Ask Jeeves for Kids
http://www.ajkids.com/
Ask a question in plain English instead of using key words.    AJ will tell you what questions he
does have answers for that might be similar to yours. Only "G-rated" Web pages and Web pages
written specifically for children are included in this knowledge base.  Note:  One annoying feature
is that when you go to a suggested site, the location at the top of the page is still listed as
AJKids.com.  In order to get the correct address for citation purposes, you need to hold down the
mouse button (right button on Windows machine) on a blank area of the page.  This will bring up
a menu that allows you to open a "new window with this frame."  (Note some older browser
versions do not have this function.) The new frame will list the correct location of that page.  At
the bottom of the original search results from AJ, you will find that several major search engines
have also been searched with the protection of Surf Watch, but not with any filter for educational
or child relevance.

SuperSnooper
http://www.supersnooper.com/
A search engine with built in filters that screen-out pornographic, violent and hate-related sites.
Sites are not filtered for educational relevancy.


back to Middle School / back home

Linda J. Burkhart linda@Lburkhart.com
http://www.Lburkhart.com
Updated: March, 2001