1:1:3 Keywords and ideas

Activity duration: 20 minutes

Identifying keywords and key ideas allows pupils to focus their thoughts and shape their investigation. Identifying keywords also facilitates research in terms of using search engines and databases to find relevant information.

How to generate keywords:

1. View the brainstorming sheet and/or mind map that pupils have produced.
2. Select at least 3 of the most relevant terms as agreed by the group. This can be achieved by members of the group by assigning 3 terms with a rank of 1, 2, and 3 (3 being most valued term) and totalling the scores to reveal the most preferred terms of the team. These will be used by the pupils when searching the World Wide Web using a search engine.
3. As an extension activity pupils can create a glossary or extend their ideas by creating another mind map.

How to generate key ideas:

From the above keywords activity, pupils will start to generate ideas about their topic by relating similar ideas and focussing their thoughts on specific parts of the topic. These key ideas should be recorded in the same manner as a brainstorm or mind map. This process should link keywords together extending initial thoughts in preparation for the next stage of formulating key questions.