The History Fair Research Journey

Doing History Fair is like being a detective Untangling a mystery (History Fair historical question and thesis) through research Finding evidence Building a case DN-0078953, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society

Each stage of the research journey calls for different sources that move from the general to the specific, from secondary sources to primary sources. STAGE 1: General Secondary Sources Encyclopedia Textbook General history books One or two primary sources STAGE 2: ON TOPIC Secondary Sources Chicago History books and magazine articles, general history books on topic Primary Sources Found in books, magazines, digitized special collections or online databases and portals Make History Here! STAGE 3: IN DEPTH Secondary Sources Specialized, narrow-focused books and journals by experts, historians Primary Sources Actual papers and records in archives and special collections, more online digitized primary sources, interviews with participants, witnesses Looking at the tier from another angle, students go from broad searches to narrow searches.

Stage 1– Basic Knowledge TYPES OF SOURCES General and Specialized Encyclopedia (includes Wikipedia) Textbook General history books One or two primary sources TYPES OF QUESTIONS Who are the key people? What are the key events? Where does it fit on a larger timeline? What information sparks my curiosity and helps me narrow my topic?

Stage 2 – Narrowed Topic TYPES OF QUESTIONS TYPES OF SOURCES What is the context? Why and how did these events happen? What are the causes and effects? What were the various motivations, perspectives, and concerns of the people involved? How does this story fit into the big picture? TYPES OF SOURCES Secondary Sources Chicago and Illinois history books and magazine articles General history books on topic Popular history magazines and periodicals Documentaries Museum exhibits Primary Sources Available from books, magazines, digitized special collections or online databases and portals

Stage 3 – In-depth TYPES OF SOURCES TYPES OF QUESTIONS Secondary Sources Specialized, narrow-focused books and journals by experts, historians Interviews with experts and historians Primary Sources Special collections and archives, more online collections Interviews with participants, witnesses TYPES OF QUESTIONS What key arguments do historians make? What do you think matters about this topic? What story are you going to tell? What are the core issues? Why does this topic matter--what is the big picture? What is the long-term historical significance of this topic?

Key Sources for Research Internet Online databases Primary sources AVOID websites as secondary sources unless credible authors Libraries Secondary & Primary Sources from books, journal and magazine articles, and special collections Historical collections at libraries and archives Interviews Witnesses, participants = primary Experts, scholars, second-hand = secondary

Google, Yahoo are NOT sources – they are Search Engines (It might help to think of them as library card catalogs… that get you to the sources you need.)

Deciphering a URL .edu = .com= .org= .gov= .net= --which can be trusted (credible)??? Who wrote the piece and why is she/he an expert? When was the site updated? Who “owns” the site?

Are you working for Google or is Google working for you? Getting 2,000,000 hits on your query? Pulling up sites that give you the same old same old over and over again? Not sure of the website’s credibility?

When you use Google: Command Google…. Group words together: “Juvenile Court History” Use 2 commands together: “Juvenile Court History” + Chicago Specify type of website: “juvenile court history”:gov or “juvenile court history”:edu \ ALSO: Use the “Advanced Search” options. Use metacrawlers and directories…. Googlebooks and Google Scholar…..

WHAT’S UP WITH Wikipedia? It’s a beginning reference -- just like a general encyclopedia which means its only background information – not a valid History Fair secondary source. The citations, however, can be useful in finding real books and articles.

Secondary Sources are First!* *but you will find primary sources along the way, too!

A Superior Detective will… Keep track of your leads: What keywords, terms, or tags you used and star those especially helpful. Keep organized and use active notetaking! Use your own words and ask questions as your take notes. Get all bibliographic information at the same time. You may think you’ll remember…. Info or quotes Questions & ideas CITATION

History Fair Bibliographies at www.chicagohistory.org Use CHM bibliographies to find as many sources as possible through CPL, so when you go to the resource center at CHM, you are looking at sources you can’t get elsewhere!

Primary Sources Material made at the time are the real “voices from the past.” Depending on the topic, you can search online, at libraries, archives, or special collections, organizations and businesses, and perhaps your even your own home,

Primary sources are the “stuff of history” that make history come alive and are the evidence for your argument.

A word about INTERVIEWS Primary source = a witness or participant Secondary source = an expert or scholar or someone telling you what someone else told them… ALWAYS DO BASIC RESEARCH BEFORE YOU INTERVIEW!

Visit Historic Sites & Museums Going to the places where history happened or taking a close look at the "real stuff" in museums helps students visualize the history that they've been researching and is an exciting part of doing History Fair. The guides at historic sites and museums can offer many insights – still, they are secondary sources.

Write down the information for your source as you go along Write down the information for your source as you go along. The Annotated Bibliography An annotated bibliography is composed of the citation and a brief description of each article or book listed and how it was used. The description helps the reader evaluate the content and usefulness of each item to his/her research—and shows the judges the students’ historical journey. (Attach to the Summary Statement Form.)

Primary and Secondary Sources should be separated. The annotation summarizes the source and explains how it was used in project. This is not an example of the best annotated bibliography. How could it be improved? Check out the bibliographies in our “Gallery.” Bibliographic Information maybe either MLA or Turabian (CMS) style.

There are 3 parts to an annotated bibliography The Citation “Battle for the World’s Fair Site.” Chicago Daily Tribune 23 September 1889, 4. In this article, the Chicago Tribune stated that Chicago would only have to worry about New York getting the World’s Fair, which I used to prove that because Washington did not have enough money, and St. Louis entered the competition late, they were not big competitors. Summary of the information used Explanation of how it was used for evidence

Tips for Citations If you have access to the internet, use Easybib.com Citationmaker.com Noodle Tools (available from nhd.org) Best style for projects is “CMS” which means “Chicago Manual of Style” otherwise known as “Turabian.” MLA is acceptable. (Remember to save on your own disk in a Word file!)