Beyond Google: Resources for the Extended Essay

http://eeuwcsea.wetpaint.com You don’t need to take written notes today -- just mental ones. Everything I’m going to tell you is already on a website online. What’s on this website?

Well, learning is a spiral Well, learning is a spiral. You just keep taking your thinking and your skills to a higher level. What you’re learning now in the IB diploma is the same thing we teach the younger kids in the PYP, the primary school version of the IB. So the EE is like one of their Units of Inquiry. xxx

This is how I talk about research to primary school students This is how I talk about research to primary school students. It’s a wheel (that spiral again) moving from Tuning In to Finding Out to Sorting Out to Going Further. Around and around with better and better questions.

<1> tuning in So the website I’ve set up has suggestions of how you can “tune in” to the EE.

Past Extended Essay Titles held in the library One way is to look at extended essays done by previous students. They’re all sitting in the main library and you can search for them on the library catalog -- at least the ones since 1989. And you can read any of them, if you just ask. So I’ve put up lists of all the titles -- i.e., questions -- chosen by previous students. You might also be interested in reading the official IBO guidebook on the EE. And there’s a copy of the UWCSEA EE booklet there to download, in case you lose the copy the school has already given you.

<2> finding out

I’m sure you all know how to find stuff on the Internet I’m sure you all know how to find stuff on the Internet. But I’ve put together some links of ways to help you go beyond Google.

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a great tuning-in tool. I like to say it’s the first place you should look, not the last. And the references at the bottom of each article are a good second place to go I’d also like to think that at the end of your extended essay, you might consider increasing the world’s knowledge and add or correct or edit a relevant Wikipedia page.

A valuable resource beyond Google and Wikipedia that I particularly want to draw your attention to -- and which is specific to Singapore -- is the public library.

over 5 million books in English over 100 databases The government has invested a huge amount of money in creating a national center of both physical books -- over 5 million books in English -- and digital resources -- over 100 subscription databases (i.e., databases

22 branches

S$ 53.30 for visas/passes

S$ 10.50 for PR

No cash allowed !

<3> sorting out

<4> going further

Questions? Katie Day David Watson Library 3rd floor primary building kda@uwcsea.edu.sg