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How to help your child develop research skills

Child and parent research on the computer

Remember your own school days, when researching a homework project meant going to the library and looking through books to find the facts you needed?

It’s easy to assume that research is a far easier task for today’s children, with the internet at their fingertips. But in reality, the vast amount of information that they have access to can make it harder to find what they need.

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From the start of KS2, you’re likely to find your child is given research-based homework tasks on subjects ranging from the Great Fire of London to Ancient Egypt , and the skills they gain from these projects are vital for their future learning.

‘Once they get to secondary school , children are expected to be able to research things independently, but there’s not always time to teach them how to do it,’ explains Tricia Adams, director of the School Library Association . ‘Once they develop these skills, they’ve got them for life, so the sooner we can start to introduce them, the better.’

How to start researching a topic

Children often leap into research-based projects without stopping to think about what is actually required of them. For example, they might be asked specifically to find out about homes in Saxon times , but end up gathering facts not just about homes, but also about jobs, food, leisure time, and so on. They then either produce a piece of work that doesn’t meet the brief, or end up having to discard all the extraneous info they’ve uncovered.

The first step is to help your child identify what’s actually being asked. Some teachers, particularly in lower KS2, will give children clear prompts, such as a bullet-pointed brief with questions that they have to answer, such as:  

  • When did the Saxons live?
  • What did their houses look like?
  • What were they made of?

In this case, encourage your child to read through all of the questions before they even start researching. It can be helpful to give them a sheet of paper for each question so they can write down information in rough as they find it.

Other times, and more commonly in upper KS2, the brief may be more general: ‘Find out how people lived in Saxon times'. In this case, the onus is on your child to think about what they’re being asked to do. Encourage them to plan their work by coming up with subheads or a paragraph plan; this will help focus their mind on the specific areas they need to research.

Researching using the internet

Most kids automatically use the internet as their first (and often only) source of information. ‘There’s a lot of fantastic information out there, but there’s also a lot that’s unhelpful and even inappropriate,’ says Tricia. ‘If your child is going to use the internet for research, the first thing to do is make sure you have really good parental controls in place so they can’t access anything harmful.’

When they’re using the internet for research, there are six key skills that your child needs to develop.

Using the right search terms. ‘Children need to learn that to do a successful search, they need to put the right words into the search box,’ says Tricia. If their wording is too specific, they may not find the information they need, but if it’s too loose, they’ll find too much irrelevant detail. Spelling mistakes can also throw a search off kilter.

One good way to help your child get to grips with using the right search terms is to get them to underline the keywords in the brief they’ve been given: for example, ‘Find out how people lived in Saxon times’. These will often be the words that form the basis of their search.

Sit with your child and demonstrate how using the right search terms can make their research more productive. Get them to look up information using three different terms ranging from the general to the specific, for instance, ‘Saxons’, ‘Saxon life’, and ‘Saxon houses’. The first will throw up way too much information, while the last may be too narrow. This will help them understand the sort of terms they need to use to get to the information they need.

Using search engines. ‘When they’re using the internet for research, children typically go straight to Google, and then use the first two websites that come up,’ Tricia says. ‘The problem is that the top hits are often ad-based or influenced by their past search history, and may not be the best sources of information.’

Tricia recommends encouraging your child to experiment with search engines other than Google. ‘Different search engines use different algorithms, so you won’t necessarily get the same results,’ she explains. ‘Get your child to compare and contrast them with Google, and say which they think is more useful.’

It’s also important to encourage your child to look beyond their first couple of hits, especially as one of these is likely to be Wikipedia, which isn’t always accessible for children, or reliable. Using a website further down the list not only opens the possibility of finding different information, but also means their final piece of work won’t be a carbon copy of everyone else’s.

Assessing reliable and unreliable sources . One of the trickiest parts of using the internet for research is developing an understanding that not all sources are reliable. ‘Being able to tell whether a source is reliable is a real skill, and is something that students are still developing at university level,’ says Tricia.

Talk to your child about good and bad sources of information, and how to tell them apart. For example, the information on websites produced by museums, well-known charities or institutions like the BBC or NHS is likely to be reliable, while those run by lesser known organisations or individuals may not be. ‘Encourage your child to look at the About page, and help them make a judgement about whether the people behind the website are likely to be trustworthy,’ Tricia says.

You can also encourage them to look for other clues that point to a website’s reliability. For example, does it look well designed? Are there spelling mistakes? When was it written?

Cross-checking. Children often skip this stage of research; they simply find the information they think they need, and then move on. But knowing how to cross-check is an important skill as they get older, and helps to confirm whether the information they’ve found is reliable. If two or more websites are saying the same thing, they can be confident that it’s accurate, whereas if they find contradictory information, they need to dig deeper to find out which is right.

Skimming and scanning. Being able to skim-read a piece of information to determine whether it’s going to be useful is an important skill that saves children the effort of reading vast amounts of text in detail, only to discover that it’s not what they need. ‘This is a skill that children develop over time, and they need to be confident readers before it can happen,’ says Tricia.

Taking notes. Your child needs to learn to take the information they’ve found, extract the key facts, and put them into their own words. The finished piece of work is likely to be far better if they take notes, rather than trying to write the final version as they do their research. Encourage them to use pencil and paper, rather than copying and pasting the information from websites; this means they’re more likely to use their own words.

Researching using books

The internet may seem the easiest place for your child to do their research, but this isn’t always the case. ‘The main problem is that the text isn’t often pitched at primary-school level,’ says Tricia. ‘There’s some brilliant information on museum websites, for example, but it’s usually aimed at an adult audience.’

Although using books might seem time-consuming, it can actually be more efficient than wading through the vast amounts of information online. ‘The benefit of books is that they’re focused on the specific topic, so you can find everything in one place,’ Tricia says. ‘It’s also easier to find books that are pitched at the right level: it’s fairly obvious from the vocabulary, typeface and format to tell whether your child has the right book in their hands.’

Some schools have a library where children can either use books in situ or take them home. There may also be a school library service, where schools can borrow books relating to the particular topic the class is studying, although budget cuts have meant that this service has disappeared in some areas.

‘I would also always encourage parents to take their children to the public library, where they can find information that’s tailored to their age group,’ adds Tricia. ‘If you can’t find what you’re looking for, the librarian will always be happy to help.’

Avoiding plagiarism

The idea of a primary school child being pulled up for plagiarism may seem far-fetched, but it’s important that they get used to putting information into their own words. Not only will this avoid them getting into trouble later on in their education, but it also means they’ve understood the information they’ve found, rather than just copying and pasting it.

A good way to explain plagiarism to your child is to get them to do a really good piece of homework, and then say, ‘Right, we’re going to give this to your friend, and they’re going to get all the marks for it.’

‘Children instantly recognise that this isn’t fair, and it’s a brilliantly simple way to demonstrate what plagiarism is, even to very young kids,’ Tricia says.

It’s also a good idea to read through your child’s work, and if there are words or phrases that you suspect they’ve lifted straight from a website or book, ask them what they mean. If they can’t explain it, chances are they’ve copied it, and you can ask them to go back and put it into their own words.

TheSchoolRun recommends some of the best reference books for children as well as offering primary-school-friendly guides to history, geography, science and religion homework topics in the free Homework Gnome section .

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Using research notes to write an information text worksheet

  • Research Skills

50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills

Please note, I am no longer blogging and this post hasn’t updated since April 2020.

For a number of years, Seth Godin has been talking about the need to “ connect the dots” rather than “collect the dots” . That is, rather than memorising information, students must be able to learn how to solve new problems, see patterns, and combine multiple perspectives.

Solid research skills underpin this. Having the fluency to find and use information successfully is an essential skill for life and work.

Today’s students have more information at their fingertips than ever before and this means the role of the teacher as a guide is more important than ever.

You might be wondering how you can fit teaching research skills into a busy curriculum? There aren’t enough hours in the day! The good news is, there are so many mini-lessons you can do to build students’ skills over time.

This post outlines 50 ideas for activities that could be done in just a few minutes (or stretched out to a longer lesson if you have the time!).

Learn More About The Research Process

I have a popular post called Teach Students How To Research Online In 5 Steps. It outlines a five-step approach to break down the research process into manageable chunks.

Learn about a simple search process for students in primary school, middle school, or high school Kathleen Morris

This post shares ideas for mini-lessons that could be carried out in the classroom throughout the year to help build students’ skills in the five areas of: clarify, search, delve, evaluate , and cite . It also includes ideas for learning about staying organised throughout the research process.

Notes about the 50 research activities:

  • These ideas can be adapted for different age groups from middle primary/elementary to senior high school.
  • Many of these ideas can be repeated throughout the year.
  • Depending on the age of your students, you can decide whether the activity will be more teacher or student led. Some activities suggest coming up with a list of words, questions, or phrases. Teachers of younger students could generate these themselves.
  • Depending on how much time you have, many of the activities can be either quickly modelled by the teacher, or extended to an hour-long lesson.
  • Some of the activities could fit into more than one category.
  • Looking for simple articles for younger students for some of the activities? Try DOGO News or Time for Kids . Newsela is also a great resource but you do need to sign up for free account.
  • Why not try a few activities in a staff meeting? Everyone can always brush up on their own research skills!

how to do research ks2

  • Choose a topic (e.g. koalas, basketball, Mount Everest) . Write as many questions as you can think of relating to that topic.
  • Make a mindmap of a topic you’re currently learning about. This could be either on paper or using an online tool like Bubbl.us .
  • Read a short book or article. Make a list of 5 words from the text that you don’t totally understand. Look up the meaning of the words in a dictionary (online or paper).
  • Look at a printed or digital copy of a short article with the title removed. Come up with as many different titles as possible that would fit the article.
  • Come up with a list of 5 different questions you could type into Google (e.g. Which country in Asia has the largest population?) Circle the keywords in each question.
  • Write down 10 words to describe a person, place, or topic. Come up with synonyms for these words using a tool like  Thesaurus.com .
  • Write pairs of synonyms on post-it notes (this could be done by the teacher or students). Each student in the class has one post-it note and walks around the classroom to find the person with the synonym to their word.

how to do research ks2

  • Explore how to search Google using your voice (i.e. click/tap on the microphone in the Google search box or on your phone/tablet keyboard) . List the pros and cons of using voice and text to search.
  • Open two different search engines in your browser such as Google and Bing. Type in a query and compare the results. Do all search engines work exactly the same?
  • Have students work in pairs to try out a different search engine (there are 11 listed here ). Report back to the class on the pros and cons.
  • Think of something you’re curious about, (e.g. What endangered animals live in the Amazon Rainforest?). Open Google in two tabs. In one search, type in one or two keywords ( e.g. Amazon Rainforest) . In the other search type in multiple relevant keywords (e.g. endangered animals Amazon rainforest).  Compare the results. Discuss the importance of being specific.
  • Similar to above, try two different searches where one phrase is in quotation marks and the other is not. For example, Origin of “raining cats and dogs” and Origin of raining cats and dogs . Discuss the difference that using quotation marks makes (It tells Google to search for the precise keywords in order.)
  • Try writing a question in Google with a few minor spelling mistakes. What happens? What happens if you add or leave out punctuation ?
  • Try the AGoogleADay.com daily search challenges from Google. The questions help older students learn about choosing keywords, deconstructing questions, and altering keywords.
  • Explore how Google uses autocomplete to suggest searches quickly. Try it out by typing in various queries (e.g. How to draw… or What is the tallest…). Discuss how these suggestions come about, how to use them, and whether they’re usually helpful.
  • Watch this video  from Code.org to learn more about how search works .
  • Take a look at  20 Instant Google Searches your Students Need to Know  by Eric Curts to learn about “ instant searches ”. Try one to try out. Perhaps each student could be assigned one to try and share with the class.
  • Experiment with typing some questions into Google that have a clear answer (e.g. “What is a parallelogram?” or “What is the highest mountain in the world?” or “What is the population of Australia?”). Look at the different ways the answers are displayed instantly within the search results — dictionary definitions, image cards, graphs etc.

What is the population of Australia

  • Watch the video How Does Google Know Everything About Me?  by Scientific American. Discuss the PageRank algorithm and how Google uses your data to customise search results.
  • Brainstorm a list of popular domains   (e.g. .com, .com.au, or your country’s domain) . Discuss if any domains might be more reliable than others and why (e.g. .gov or .edu) .
  • Discuss (or research) ways to open Google search results in a new tab to save your original search results  (i.e. right-click > open link in new tab or press control/command and click the link).
  • Try out a few Google searches (perhaps start with things like “car service” “cat food” or “fresh flowers”). A re there advertisements within the results? Discuss where these appear and how to spot them.
  • Look at ways to filter search results by using the tabs at the top of the page in Google (i.e. news, images, shopping, maps, videos etc.). Do the same filters appear for all Google searches? Try out a few different searches and see.
  • Type a question into Google and look for the “People also ask” and “Searches related to…” sections. Discuss how these could be useful. When should you use them or ignore them so you don’t go off on an irrelevant tangent? Is the information in the drop-down section under “People also ask” always the best?
  • Often, more current search results are more useful. Click on “tools” under the Google search box and then “any time” and your time frame of choice such as “Past month” or “Past year”.
  • Have students annotate their own “anatomy of a search result” example like the one I made below. Explore the different ways search results display; some have more details like sitelinks and some do not.

Anatomy of a google search result

  • Find two articles on a news topic from different publications. Or find a news article and an opinion piece on the same topic. Make a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences.
  • Choose a graph, map, or chart from The New York Times’ What’s Going On In This Graph series . Have a whole class or small group discussion about the data.
  • Look at images stripped of their captions on What’s Going On In This Picture? by The New York Times. Discuss the images in pairs or small groups. What can you tell?
  • Explore a website together as a class or in pairs — perhaps a news website. Identify all the advertisements .
  • Have a look at a fake website either as a whole class or in pairs/small groups. See if students can spot that these sites are not real. Discuss the fact that you can’t believe everything that’s online. Get started with these four examples of fake websites from Eric Curts.
  • Give students a copy of my website evaluation flowchart to analyse and then discuss as a class. Read more about the flowchart in this post.
  • As a class, look at a prompt from Mike Caulfield’s Four Moves . Either together or in small groups, have students fact check the prompts on the site. This resource explains more about the fact checking process. Note: some of these prompts are not suitable for younger students.
  • Practice skim reading — give students one minute to read a short article. Ask them to discuss what stood out to them. Headings? Bold words? Quotes? Then give students ten minutes to read the same article and discuss deep reading.

how to do research ks2

All students can benefit from learning about plagiarism, copyright, how to write information in their own words, and how to acknowledge the source. However, the formality of this process will depend on your students’ age and your curriculum guidelines.

  • Watch the video Citation for Beginners for an introduction to citation. Discuss the key points to remember.
  • Look up the definition of plagiarism using a variety of sources (dictionary, video, Wikipedia etc.). Create a definition as a class.
  • Find an interesting video on YouTube (perhaps a “life hack” video) and write a brief summary in your own words.
  • Have students pair up and tell each other about their weekend. Then have the listener try to verbalise or write their friend’s recount in their own words. Discuss how accurate this was.
  • Read the class a copy of a well known fairy tale. Have them write a short summary in their own words. Compare the versions that different students come up with.
  • Try out MyBib — a handy free online tool without ads that helps you create citations quickly and easily.
  • Give primary/elementary students a copy of Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Citation that matches their grade level (the guide covers grades 1 to 6). Choose one form of citation and create some examples as a class (e.g. a website or a book).
  • Make a list of things that are okay and not okay to do when researching, e.g. copy text from a website, use any image from Google images, paraphrase in your own words and cite your source, add a short quote and cite the source. 
  • Have students read a short article and then come up with a summary that would be considered plagiarism and one that would not be considered plagiarism. These could be shared with the class and the students asked to decide which one shows an example of plagiarism .
  • Older students could investigate the difference between paraphrasing and summarising . They could create a Venn diagram that compares the two.
  • Write a list of statements on the board that might be true or false ( e.g. The 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia. The rhinoceros is the largest land animal in the world. The current marathon world record is 2 hours, 7 minutes). Have students research these statements and decide whether they’re true or false by sharing their citations.

Staying Organised

how to do research ks2

  • Make a list of different ways you can take notes while researching — Google Docs, Google Keep, pen and paper etc. Discuss the pros and cons of each method.
  • Learn the keyboard shortcuts to help manage tabs (e.g. open new tab, reopen closed tab, go to next tab etc.). Perhaps students could all try out the shortcuts and share their favourite one with the class.
  • Find a collection of resources on a topic and add them to a Wakelet .
  • Listen to a short podcast or watch a brief video on a certain topic and sketchnote ideas. Sylvia Duckworth has some great tips about live sketchnoting
  • Learn how to use split screen to have one window open with your research, and another open with your notes (e.g. a Google spreadsheet, Google Doc, Microsoft Word or OneNote etc.) .

All teachers know it’s important to teach students to research well. Investing time in this process will also pay off throughout the year and the years to come. Students will be able to focus on analysing and synthesizing information, rather than the mechanics of the research process.

By trying out as many of these mini-lessons as possible throughout the year, you’ll be really helping your students to thrive in all areas of school, work, and life.

Also remember to model your own searches explicitly during class time. Talk out loud as you look things up and ask students for input. Learning together is the way to go!

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

How To Evaluate Websites: A Guide For Teachers And Students

Five Tips for Teaching Students How to Research and Filter Information

Typing Tips: The How and Why of Teaching Students Keyboarding Skills

8 Ways Teachers And Schools Can Communicate With Parents

Learn how to teach research skills to primary students, middle school students, or high school students. 50 activities that could be done in just a few minutes a day. Lots of Google search tips and research tips for kids and teachers. Free PDF included! Kathleen Morris | Primary Tech

10 Replies to “50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills”

Loving these ideas, thank you

This list is amazing. Thank you so much!

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So glad it’s helpful, Alex! 🙂

Hi I am a student who really needed some help on how to reasearch thanks for the help.

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So glad it helped! 🙂

seriously seriously grateful for your post. 🙂

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So glad it’s helpful! Makes my day 🙂

How do you get the 50 mini lessons. I got the free one but am interested in the full version.

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Hi Tracey, The link to the PDF with the 50 mini lessons is in the post. Here it is . Check out this post if you need more advice on teaching students how to research online. Hope that helps! Kathleen

Best wishes to you as you face your health battler. Hoping you’ve come out stronger and healthier from it. Your website is so helpful.

Comments are closed.

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Research Skills - Note Taking

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A 60 minute lesson in which students will take appropriate notes from an informative text.

  • Write the following sentence on the board, twice (one underneath the other):  Snakes are cold-blooded reptiles that can make venom. 
  • Do these words provide any information about what the sentence is about?
  • Is it possible to guess what the sentence is about, using only these words?
  • Explain to the students that these words are known as 'connector words'. They provide no information about the content of a sentence.
  • Explain to the students that these words are known as 'informational words'. They provide the key information about the content of a sentence.
  • Remind the students that, when they are taking notes from informative texts, they should only write down the informational words, not the connector words.

Teacher Instruction

  • Project the text about sharks from the Research Skills Worksheets - Note Taking   on the board. Discuss the instructions and hints in the box at the top of the page.
  • looking at the title, subheadings, illustrations and repeated words for hints about the main idea
  • locating and defining the subject-specific words (words that are related to the main idea).
  • Project the next page of the worksheet pack on the board. Discuss the instructions and hints in the box at the top of the page.
  • highlighting the informational words only, not the connector words
  • noting the key facts and details as single words or short phrases.

Guided/Independent Learning

  • Provide the students with a copy of the  Research Skills Worksheets - Note Taking . Monitor and support the students as they work through the activities for the two remaining texts.

Wrapping Up

  • Discuss the main idea and subject-specific vocabulary of the two remaining texts (astronauts and smartphones). Encourage confident students to share their dot point notes with the rest of the class.

Differentiation

Extending students.

  • Challenge any fast finishers to use their dot point notes to create a fact file poster for one of the topics in the worksheet pack.

Supporting Students

  • Allow any students who find reading comprehension challenging to work on the note taking task in a small group with a teacher or teacher aide.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

  • used strategic whole class or individual questioning
  • observed student participation during learning activities
  • recorded student progress on a checklist
  • annotated student work samples
  • collected and reviewed student work samples
  • facilitated whole class or peer feedback sessions
  • encouraged student self-reflection
  • administered formal assessment tasks.

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Key stage 2 (ks2) - lower.

Key Stage 2 (KS2) - Lower covers students in Year 3 and Year 4.

By the beginning of year 3, pupils should be able to read books written at an age-appropriate interest level. They should be able to read them accurately and at a speed that is sufficient for them to focus on understanding what they read rather than ...

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Comprehension.

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  • Working scientifically: research

In primary science research enquiries, children get to use a range of secondary sources to help them find the answers to ‘big questions’.

Explore the trust

Research enquiries are a great opportunity to use science lessons to practise reading and listening skills developed in English; children get to use a range of secondary sources to help them find the answers to their ‘big questions’. Alternatively, children could plan research tools, such as questionnaires and interviews, to collect their own data. They are also an ideal type of enquiry to encourage collaborative learning in children, both in the researching and sharing of information, but also in presenting their findings to a variety of audiences. Research enquiries help to develop children’s scientific literacy, as children learn to compare and evaluate information from different sources. As children learn to recognise the differences between fact and opinion, and consider the concept of bias, they develop life skills that will support them in being citizens of the twenty-first century.

The video below gives you an introduction to research enquiries; below the video you will find a useful resource to download which includes suggestions for some of the ‘big questions’ that pupils might explore through a research enquiry. A full transcript of the video can also be downloaded below.

We also have a range of research cards and resources looking at ideas over time which can be found on our resource pages via this link.

File Name File Type File Size File Link
PDF 201 KB
PDF 49 KB

Published: 5 October 2021

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how to do research ks2

6 Secrets to Successful Research with Kids

Are you trying to figure out how to make research enjoyable and maybe even fun (gasp!) for kids? Our guest blogger is a teacher-turned-librarian, and she's sharing six secrets to successful research with kids in this post. Click through to read more!

1) Your librarian should be your best resource. But, research is NOT just for the library. Research is just a word used to describe the process of discovering new information, seeking answers, and studying a topic deeper. As an educator, you are ALREADY guiding your students to research. Every. Single. Day. Each time that a student learns a new fact, they have performed a baby step along the research journey. Often, I find that teachers place too much emphasis on the concept of research. They make it heavy. They turn it into a burden when, truly, research is happening a dozen times a day. Let your students know that each time you say the words, “Let’s look it up,” you are completing research. It’s just that easy!

Are you trying to figure out how to make research enjoyable and maybe even fun (gasp!) for kids? Our guest blogger is a teacher-turned-librarian, and she's sharing six secrets to successful research with kids in this post. Click through to read more!

Kids just need to keep track of WHERE their facts come from. This process can easily be simplified in many ways. Take a peek at my FREE resource, It’s Elementary-Bibliography for the Youngest Students . You can learn even more about encouraging kids to record where their research facts are coming from, without burdening them!

Are you trying to figure out how to make research enjoyable and maybe even fun (gasp!) for kids? Our guest blogger is a teacher-turned-librarian, and she's sharing six secrets to successful research with kids in this post. Click through to read more!

Some people, even a few librarians, think that simple fact-finding questions lack depth and complexity. Well, sure they do, but there are still many benefits to finding the answer to, “Who was president in 1882?”, “How many legs does a spider have?”, and “What is the capital of Zimbabwe?” Those simple research questions require students to read for comprehension, identify the keyword, locate pertinent articles by using that keyword, scan for the keyword in the text, and seek out answers. Not bad for just a simple question, huh?

Each time that you are seeking text-based evidence with your kids, ask your students to identify the keyword. Use the word “keyword” in your daily discussions. Again. And again. I have found that the youngsters with a strong sense of keywords are the best researchers.

Are you trying to figure out how to make research enjoyable and maybe even fun (gasp!) for kids? Our guest blogger is a teacher-turned-librarian, and she's sharing six secrets to successful research with kids in this post. Click through to read more!

It is possible. Really! You will be hard-pressed to get your kids excited about a research project if the end result is going to be a five-paragraph essay with an introduction, three detail paragraphs, and a conclusion. Just saying! How about shaking things up a bit?

Utilize task cards. Use apps to create a storyboard or a comic strip. Invite students to create an A to Z report. Have students pretend that they are a reporter breaking a news story. Record them. Create a file folder report or a research poster. How about an interactive report, similar to interactive notebooks? I have created state and country reports that utilize many interactive elements. Students are excited to conduct the research and even more excited to put together the project. One of my students said it best when he said, “I am definitely NOT letting my mom throw this away.”

Are you trying to figure out how to make research enjoyable and maybe even fun (gasp!) for kids? Our guest blogger is a teacher-turned-librarian, and she's sharing six secrets to successful research with kids in this post. Click through to read more!

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Reading Practice for the Whole Year

Close Reading Comprehension Practice

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Research facts for kids

Research-Warner-Highsmith

Research is the process of solving problems and finding facts in an organised way. Research is done by using what is known (if anything), and building on it. Additional knowledge can be got by proving (or falsifying) existing theories , and by trying to better explain observations . Research should be systematic, organized and objective .

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" — Albert Einstein

Academic research

Scientific research, some basic principles of research, basic activities at research process, types of research, images for kids.

Researchers take part in field or laboratory experiments , reading relevant books, journals or websites , taking notes and making conclusions . Teaching and lecturing is only part of the job of a professor or researcher. When they are not directly teaching classes they are often working on academic research. Learning institutions can vary widely in what they expect from members of their faculty. Most expect faculty members to set up their own laboratories. They hire their own lab employees and obtain their own funding , often from more than one source. Academic researchers often compete for grants to fund research at their own university . The more money researchers can attract, the higher the prestige of that university.

Microscopy lab

The scientific method is the usual way of doing this kind of research. It is meant to improve understanding of biology , engineering , physics , chemistry and many other fields. With this kind of research, scientists can understand the world, and discover useful things.

Money for research comes from governments , private corporations , and charities . Some of these organizations combine research and development of new products and ways of doing their work.

Venus balloon

Any research should be:

  • Systematic : from an hypothesis or working objective, scientists gather data according to a scheme set out in advance. From this scientists change ideas or add new knowledge to that already existing. The approach used in research is the scientific method .
  • Organized : members of a research group use the same definitions, standards and principles. To achieve this, the research is planned in detail.
  • Objective : conclusions got from research must be based on observed and measured facts , not on subjective impressions. The conclusions should be un biased .
  • Studying available information on the subject.
  • Physical or computer modeling.
  • Measuring the phenomena .
  • Comparing the obtained results.
  • Interpreting the results with the current knowledge, considering the variables which might have influenced the result.
  • Basic research , also called fundamental research or pure research, aims to understand nature.
  • Applied research aims at using the new knowledge to do something.

Research must be published so the world can learn from it. Nature , Science and Proceedings of the Royal Society , are general scientific journals. Many special journals are published.

Aristotle Altemps Inv8575

Aristotle , (384–322 BC), one of the early figures in the development of the scientific method

Alcator C-Mod

Scientific research equipment at MIT

RV Sonne 2014 1

German maritime research vessel Sonne

Leopold von Ranke 1868

German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), considered to be one of the founders of modern source-based history

Research cycle

Research cycle

NYC Public Library Research Room Jan 2006-1- 3

The research room at the New York Public Library, an example of secondary research in progress

Hilleman-Walter-Reed

Maurice Hilleman , the preeminent vaccinologist of the 20th century, is credited with saving more lives than any other scientist in that time.

Nature cover, November 4, 1869

Cover of the first issue of Nature , 4 November 1869

  • This page was last modified on 16 October 2023, at 16:53. Suggest an edit .
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Generic Learning Research Template

Generic Learning Research Template

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

We CAN School

Last updated

22 October 2019

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how to do research ks2

A generic template for children to use in KS2 classrooms when conducting their own non-fiction research- whether about significant people, places or significant events.

This double-sided document has the new curriculum in mind, asking children what they already know about a topic of their choosing, before generating their own questions and answering them.

Again, with the Education Inspection Framework in mind, children are asked to consider the connections they have made to things they have learned previously, before considering if there is any further research they will need to conduct. This resource is useful for non-fiction research lessons, or in classrooms with a non-fiction provision area.

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Iowa institutions should commit to protecting animals used in research

We do not have to choose between saving human lives or animal lives..

Over the past few years, more and more citizens have come to oppose the cruelty behind the animal testing industry. Iowans have followed suit — and some have taken action. 

In 2022, the Iowa Legislature passed a historic law that required taxpayer-funded research facilities to create adoption programs instead of simply euthanizing dogs and cats after their use in laboratories. This law has had impact beyond state-operated institutions. Private research labs in Iowa took notice, and some have started working with animal shelters to adopt out animals, too. 

Later that year, the Humane Society of the United States removed nearly 4,000 beagles — many bound for research labs — from a massive breeding facility operated by Envigo RMS. The facility received multiple Animal Welfare Act violations for issues such as inadequate veterinary care and insufficient food. The U.S. Department of Justice just this month announced that Inotiv, the parent company of Envigo, will pay more than $35 million, including an $11 million fine for violating the Animal Welfare Act, the largest in history. 

One of those dogs, now named Lilly, found her way to Iowa. Another was adopted by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. By the end of the summer, all the dogs rescued from the Envigo facility were on their way to new homes, something showcased by headlines around the country. And the world got a clear glimpse into the animal research and breeding industry.  

Earlier this year, the University of Iowa announced it was hiring a new vice president for research. I sent a letter to UI President Barbara Wilson encouraging the institution to seek out a candidate who would place an emphasis on emerging technologies and rely far less on animal experiments. My letter went unanswered — until this past week. 

Following congressional hearing in which Dr. Anthony Fauci was interrogated about federal spending on animal research, Iowa state Rep. Taylor Collins sent a letter to the University of Iowa and the Iowa Board of Regents expressing his own concerns. Collins demanded an audit of the institution’s research programs to ensure that no egregiously cruel testing was taking place in Iowa. 

Collins received a response from the university, ignoring his request for an audit. Not long after that, I received an email from the University’s Office of the Vice President for Research. It was boilerplate — we’ve received your message; we think we’re doing fine; we’re not interested in change. 

I don’t believe that’s what Iowans want to hear from our institutions. 

In an era defined by innovation, testing drugs on dogs, rats, monkeys and other animals not only causes immense suffering, it’s increasingly outdated. We can and should find ways to spare animals from suffering by supporting the development and use of non-animal technologies to study and test treatments for diseases and the health effects of products. Organs-on-chips, robotics, reconstructed human tissues, computer models and others are often more accurate, and these alternatives are improving all the time.  We do not have to choose between saving human lives or animal lives.  

Iowans and our leaders can improve the lives of animals in research starting today. I am hopeful that our state institutions will take steps to eliminate the animal research that causes the most suffering — whether it takes more conversation and dialogue or constructive legislative action. Iowans should speak up for both. 

Iowa’s congressional delegation can also take action and should support the Better Collaboration, Accountability, and Regulatory Enforcement (CARE) for Animals Act, which would better protect all animals covered under the Animal Welfare Act. This includes animals at research facilities, commercial pet breeding operations and on exhibitions at zoos and aquariums. 

Preston Moore serves as the Iowa state director for the Humane Society of the United States. Moore lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife, daughter and three dogs.

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Research: Using AI at Work Makes Us Lonelier and Less Healthy

  • David De Cremer
  • Joel Koopman

how to do research ks2

Employees who use AI as a core part of their jobs report feeling more isolated, drinking more, and sleeping less than employees who don’t.

The promise of AI is alluring — optimized productivity, lightning-fast data analysis, and freedom from mundane tasks — and both companies and workers alike are fascinated (and more than a little dumbfounded) by how these tools allow them to do more and better work faster than ever before. Yet in fervor to keep pace with competitors and reap the efficiency gains associated with deploying AI, many organizations have lost sight of their most important asset: the humans whose jobs are being fragmented into tasks that are increasingly becoming automated. Across four studies, employees who use it as a core part of their jobs reported feeling lonelier, drinking more, and suffering from insomnia more than employees who don’t.

Imagine this: Jia, a marketing analyst, arrives at work, logs into her computer, and is greeted by an AI assistant that has already sorted through her emails, prioritized her tasks for the day, and generated first drafts of reports that used to take hours to write. Jia (like everyone who has spent time working with these tools) marvels at how much time she can save by using AI. Inspired by the efficiency-enhancing effects of AI, Jia feels that she can be so much more productive than before. As a result, she gets focused on completing as many tasks as possible in conjunction with her AI assistant.

  • David De Cremer is a professor of management and technology at Northeastern University and the Dunton Family Dean of its D’Amore-McKim School of Business. His website is daviddecremer.com .
  • JK Joel Koopman is the TJ Barlow Professor of Business Administration at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University. His research interests include prosocial behavior, organizational justice, motivational processes, and research methodology. He has won multiple awards from Academy of Management’s HR Division (Early Career Achievement Award and David P. Lepak Service Award) along with the 2022 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions award, and currently serves on the Leadership Committee for the HR Division of the Academy of Management .

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  • Americans’ Views of Government’s Role: Persistent Divisions and Areas of Agreement

1. Government’s scope, efficiency and role in regulating business

Table of contents.

  • Views on the efficiency of government
  • Views on the government’s regulation of business
  • Confidence in the nation’s ability to solve problems
  • Views on the effect of government aid to the poor
  • Views on government’s role in health care
  • Views on the future of Social Security
  • Trust in government
  • Feelings toward the federal government
  • Acknowledgments
  • The American Trends Panel survey methodology

American s are evenly divided in their preferences for the size of government. Yet a somewhat greater share wants the government to do more to solve problems than say it is doing too much better left to others.

Chart shows Americans are closely divided on the size of government, and these views increasingly partisan

There is a persistent belief that government is wasteful: 56% say it is “almost always wasteful and inefficient.”

However, a majority of Americans (58%) say government regulation of business is necessary to protect the public good.

Divisions on government’s size, scope

Overall, 49% say they would prefer a smaller government providing fewer services, while 48% say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services.

Most Democrats prefer a larger government. For nearly half a century, Democrats and Republicans have differed in their preferences for the size of government. Today, those differences are as wide as they have ever been:

  • Nearly three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (74%) favor a bigger government, providing more services. By comparison, in 2015, a smaller majority of Democrats (59%) said they preferred a bigger government.
  • Just 20% of Republicans and Republican leaners prefer a bigger government; nearly four times as many want smaller government with fewer services. Republicans’ views of the size of government have changed less than Democrats’. Still, when George W. Bush was running for reelection in 2004, roughly a third of Republicans favored a bigger government.

Chart shows Differences by age, race and ethnicity, and family income on government’s role in solving problems

When asked about the proper role of government, about half of Americans (53%) say the government should do more to solve problems, while 46% say the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.

An overwhelming share of Democrats (76%) say government should do more to solve problems, while about a quarter (23%) say it is doing too many things better left to individuals and businesses.

By contrast, Republicans prefer a more limited role for government: 71% say government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals, while 28% say government should do more to solve problems.

There are also sizable demographic differences in these views:

  • White adults (54%) are the most likely to say government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals, while smaller shares of Asian (34%), Black (31%) and Hispanic (29%) adults say the same.
  • Younger adults are more likely than older adults to favor a larger role for government, with adults ages 18 to 29 (66%) being the most likely to say government should do more to solve problems.
  • Among income groups, a majority of lower-income adults (61%) say government should do more to solve problems, while smaller shares of upper- and middle-income adults (53% and 48%, respectively) say the same.

Views among partisans by race, ethnicity and income

Among partisans, there are wide demographic differences on the preferred role of government – especially among Republicans.

Chart shows Republicans are divided internally on whether government should do more to solve problems

Hispanic Republicans (58%) are much more likely than White Republicans (21%) to favor a larger role for government.

Views among Democrats are much less divided, with at least seven-in-ten Democrats in each racial and ethnic group saying government should do more to solve problems.

Nearly half of lower-income Republicans (46%) say that the government should do more to solve problems, while smaller shares of middle- (22%) and upper-income (19%) Republicans say the same.

Wide majorities of Democrats across income groups say government should do more to solve problems.

In assessments of the efficiency of the government, a majority of Americans (56%) find it to be “almost always wasteful and inefficient.” A smaller share (42%) say government “often does a better job than people give it credit for.”

Chart shows Majority of Americans say government is ‘almost always wasteful and inefficient’

Overall, views on the efficiency of government have remained somewhat steady since 2019, with views today mirroring those five years ago.

Among partisans, a majority of Democrats (63%) say the government often does a better job than people give it credit for, while a large majority of Republicans (77%) say government is often wasteful and inefficient.

Views on the efficiency of government in both parties have remained steady since 2021.

While Democrats are generally more likely than Republicans to say government does not get enough credit, these views vary somewhat depending on which party holds the presidency:

  • Democrats are now more likely to give credit to the government than they were during the Trump administration.
  • Among Republicans, views of government efficiency were more positive during the Trump administration.

This is consistent with shifts in views during prior administrations .

On the topic of government regulation of business, about six-in-ten Americans (58%) say that government regulation of business is necessary to protect the public interest. Four-in-ten, however, say government regulation of business usually does more harm than good.

Chart shows Broad support for government regulation of business among Democrats, young adults, and Black, Hispanic and Asian adults

These views have remained largely unchanged since 2017.

As with other attitudes about government, Republicans and Democrats differ on the impact of government regulation of business:

  • About two-thirds of Republicans (65%) say government regulation does more harm than good.
  • Roughly eight-in-ten Democrats (82%) say government regulation is necessary to protect the public interest.

Among other demographic differences:

  • White adults (45%) are the most likely to say government regulation does more harm than good, while smaller shares of Hispanic (32%), Asian (29%) and Black (27%) adults say the same.
  • Younger adults are more likely than older adults to say government regulation of business is necessary to protect the public interest, with adults ages 18 to 29 (64%) being the most likely to say this.

Chart shows Americans are evenly divided on whether the U.S. can solve many of its important problems

Americans are divided in their views on the country’s ability to solve important problems. About half (52%) of Americans say “this country can’t solve many of its important problems,” while 47% say that “as Americans, we can always find ways to solve our problems and get what we want.”

More Americans express confidence in the country’s ability to solve problems now than a year ago (47% now, 43% then). Still, the share saying this is lower than it was from 2019 to 2022.

Unlike assessments of government, there are no partisan differences in views on the country’s ability to solve its important problems.

In both parties, about half say the U.S. can’t solve many of its important problems, while slightly narrower shares say Americans can always find ways to solve the country’s problems.

Views among age groups

Chart shows Age differences over whether the U.S. can solve its important problems

Among age groups, younger adults are the most likely to express skepticism in the country’s ability to solve its important problems. About six-in-ten adults ages 18 to 29 (62%) say the U.S. can’t solve many of its important problems, while smaller shares of older adults say the same.

Overall, the shares of adults in each age group who voice skepticism on the country’s ability to solve its problems remain higher than they were in 2022.

However, older adults have grown slightly more optimistic on this issue in the past year. Views among the youngest adults are relatively unchanged from 2022.

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Biden, trump are least-liked pair of major party presidential candidates in at least 3 decades, cultural issues and the 2024 election, more than half of americans are following election news closely, and many are already worn out, americans have mixed views about how the news media cover biden’s, trump’s ages, most popular, report materials.

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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Health | ‘Unusual’ cancers emerged after the…

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Health | ‘Unusual’ cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if COVID is to blame.

Some are sounding alarm on need to make research a priority.

A man and woman relaxing on a porch, where she lies across his lap

The Washington Post

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Kashyap Patel looked forward to his team’s Friday lunches. All the doctors from his oncology practice would gather in the open-air courtyard under the shadow of a tall magnolia tree and catch up. The atmosphere tended to be lighthearted and optimistic. But that week, he was distressed.

It was 2021, a year into the coronavirus pandemic, and as he slid into a chair, Patel shared that he’d just seen a patient in his 40s with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and lethal cancer of the bile ducts that typically strikes people in their 70s and 80s. Initially, there was silence, and then one colleague after another said they’d recently treated patients who had similar diagnoses. Within a year of that meeting, the office had recorded seven such cases.

“I’ve been in practice 23 years and have never seen anything like this,” Patel, CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, later recalled. Asutosh Gor, another oncologist, agreed: “We were all shaken.”

There was other weirdness, too: multiple patients contending with multiple types of cancer arising almost simultaneously, and more than a dozen new cases of other rare cancers.

Two older adults ride their electric bikes around their neighborhood in South Carolina.

Increasingly, Patel was left with an unsettling thought: Could the coronavirus be inflaming the embers of cancer?

The uptick in aggressive, late-stage cancers since the dawn of the pandemic is confirmed by some early national data and a number of large cancer institutions. Many experts have mostly dismissed the trend as an expected consequence of disruptions to health care that began in 2020.

But not everyone.

The idea that some viruses can cause or accelerate cancer is hardly new. Scientists have recognized this possibility since the 1960s, and today, researchers estimate that 15 to 20 percent of all cancers worldwide originate from infectious agents such as HPV, Epstein-Barr and hepatitis B.

It will probably be many years before the world has conclusive answers about whether the coronavirus is complicit in the surge of cancer cases, but Patel and other concerned scientists are calling on the U.S. government to make this question a priority, knowing it could affect treatment and management of millions of cancer patients for decades to come.

“We are completely under-investigating this virus,” said Douglas C. Wallace, a University of Pennsylvania geneticist and evolutionary biologist. “The effects of repeatedly getting this throughout our lives is going to be much more significant than people are thinking.”

But there is no real world data linking SARS-CoV-2 to cancer, and some scientists remain skeptical.

An older man sits supporting his ill wife.

John T. Schiller, a National Institutes of Health researcher and pioneer in the study of cancer-causing viruses, said pathogens known to cause cancer persist in the body long-term. But the class of respiratory viruses that includes influenza and RSV — a family that counts the coronavirus as a member — infects a patient and then typically goes away instead of lingering, and is not believed to cause cancer.

“You can never say never, but that sort of … virus does not suggest being implicated in cancers,” Schiller said.

David Tuveson, director of the Cancer Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and former president of the American Association for Cancer Research, said there’s no evidence the coronavirus directly transforms cells to make them cancerous. But that may not be the full story.

Tuveson said a number of small and early studies — many of which have been published within the past nine months — suggests that coronavirus infection can induce an inflammatory cascade and other responses that, in theory, could exacerbate the growth of cancer cells.

He has wondered whether it could be more akin to an environmental stressor — like tobacco, alcohol, asbestos or microplastics.

“COVID wrecks the body, and that’s where cancers can start,” Tuveson said, explaining how autopsy studies of people who died of COVID-19 showed prematurely aged tissue.

Even as the first wave of the coronavirus pummeled the United States, public health officials predicted a surge of cancer cases. A Lancet Oncology paper analyzed a national registry showing increases of Stage 4 disease — the most severe — across many cancer types in late 2020. Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute, UC San Diego Health and other large institutions have released data showing continued increases in late-stage cancers.

Xuesong Han, scientific director of health services research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the Lancet Oncology study, attributed the jump to people delaying or skipping care because of fears related to the virus or because of economic reasons and also to cultural factors, language barriers and discrimination. But Han acknowledged that biological mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could be at play.

“I don’t have the data to support this opinion,” Han said. “But it’s an important question to follow up on.”

A researcher greets a caregiver whose husband has cancer with a hug.

‘Hopefully, we’re wrong’

The human body is made up of trillions of cells in a constant state of growth, repair and death. Most of the time, cells with damaged DNA fix themselves, or simply disappear. Sometimes, they start collecting mistakes in their genetic code and rampage out of control into tumors, destroying parts of the body.

Afshin Beheshti is president of the COVID-19 International Research Team, a group of scientists from eclectic backgrounds who got together during the pandemic to consider out-of-the-box of ways to tackle the virus. Beheshti’s background is in cancer biology, and he said that as the science on the virus evolved — including studies showing widespread inflammation following infection, impact on the vascular system and infection in multiple organs vulnerable to cancer stem cell development — he kept thinking “the signals seemed to be related to early cancer changes.”

“It kept nagging on my mind,” he said.

About a year ago Beheshti, a visiting researcher at MIT and Harvard’s Broad Institute, reached out to Patel, who is a past president of the Community Oncology Alliance, a national group of independent cancer specialists, and they hosted a symposium with other scientists that concluded compelling evidence exists suggesting links between the coronavirus and cancer.

“Hopefully, we’re wrong,” Beheshti said. “But everything is, unfortunately, pushing toward that being the case.”

The group’s loosely affiliated members are launching research studies that are trying to piece together the puzzle of coronavirus infection, long COVID and cancer.

Wallace — the University of Pennsylvania scientist considered a father of the field of human mitochondrial genetics, which explores the power plants that fuel human cells — is researching how COVID affects energy production in cells and how that might influence cancer vulnerability.

A researcher sits for a portrait in his office.

Separately, biodata experts are sequencing the gene profiles of organs from people who succumbed to COVID and underwent autopsies.

And a University of Colorado team is studying whether COVID reawakens dormant cancer cells in mice. Their provocative findings, according to a preprint report released in April, showed that when mice that were cancer survivors were infected with SARS-CoV-2, dormant cancer cells proliferated in the lungs. They saw similar results with the flu virus.

Ashani Weeraratna, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the Colorado study, which she did not participate in, is part of a new field of work that emerged during the past decade that drills into what stimuli can reawaken cancer cells.

She said it is consistent with research highlighting the importance of the immune system in activating cells from dormancy, so it makes sense that “something like influenza or COVID that triggers inflammation could change in the immune microenvironment.” But the results surprised her because “it’s rare the data are so striking.”

Weeraratna said that while she believes the Colorado study’s findings are important, they should be interpreted with caution. Studies in mice often do not translate to human experiences. She said it’s also important to emphasize that the research and other recent papers focusing on COVID and cancer involve acute infection or long COVID; they do not suggest a link between the coronavirus vaccine and cancer — misinformation that some anti-vaccine groups have spread in recent months.

Doctors at Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates in Rock Hill, S.C. sit outside and discuss cases.

Still, Weeraratna said, there’s an important public health takeaway.

“Mitigating risk of infection may be of particular importance for cancer patients,” Weeraratna said. Based on the study’s findings, measures adopted by vulnerable patients starting in the early days of the pandemic — wearing masks, avoiding crowded places, getting vaccines — become even more important.

Other studies offer telltale clues about the link between viruses and cancer.

Pathologists from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences reported in 2021 in the journal Communications Biology that SARS-CoV-2 proteins fueled the replication of a herpesvirus considered one of the major viruses leading to cancer. Other studies have implicated the coronavirus in helping to stimulate dormant breast cancer cells.

A paper published in 2023 in the journal Biochimie explored mechanisms the coronavirus could exploit to aggravate several forms of cancer, including lung, colorectal, pancreatic and oral. Researchers suggested the most likely pathway was through disrupting the body’s ability to suppress tumors, but researchers acknowledged a lack of direct evidence to support the theory.

Wallace believes the dearth of hard data on the coronavirus and cancer reflects policy choices more than scientific challenges.

“I would say most governments don’t want to think about long COVID and much less long COVID and cancer. It cost them so much to deal with COVID. So there is very little funding for the long-term effects of the virus,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a wise choice.”

‘Everyone has it’

From his practice in this Southern town, Patel is conducting his own research into what he has taken to calling “an unusual pattern” of cancers. He is driven by watching patients — especially younger ones — die so quickly.

He’s looking at potential correlations between long COVID markers and unusual cancers. He has collected data from nearly 300 patients and wants to create a national registry to analyze trends. So far, his office has logged more than 15 patients with multiple cancers, more than 35 patients with rare cancers and more than 15 couples with new cancers since the pandemic began in 2020.

Patel theorizes the effects of coronavirus infections could be cumulative in people infected multiple times. Pandemic-related stress may compound the threat, he said, by exacerbating inflammation.

If a link is established between the virus and cancer, he said, doctors might identify patients at greater risk and implement screenings earlier and even put some patients on anti-inflammatory drugs.

Mammograms and colonoscopies would have done nothing to prevent the illness of one of Patel’s patients, a 78-year-old diagnosed with three cancers — throat, liver and lungs -— within a year.

Then there’s Bob and Bonnie Krall, a couple who in a 14-month stretch endured three types of cancer between them, despite neither having a family history or genetic predisposition.

Cancers typically start in one part of the body and spread. It’s rare for discrete cancers to begin in different parts of the body during a short window of time. Patel said the Kralls and the 78-year-old had coronavirus antibodies “through the roof” in their blood, although he’s not sure how that relates to cancer, if at all.

Patel met the Kralls in 2022 when Bob was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. During one of her husband’s treatments, Bonnie mentioned she was dealing with her own health issues related to long COVID, including stomach pain. Medications weren’t helping. Patel ran tests and discovered Bonnie had cancer, too. By the time she was scheduled for surgery a few weeks after diagnosis, the malignancy in her abdomen had grown three more centimeters and weighed 8.5 pounds. This year, Bob’s doctors found cancer in his lungs.

Bob’s blood cancer, CLL, is considered rare, with only four or five cases in every 100,000 people, but he has been surprised to find four of his neighbors and friends have it, too.

“It’s like a cold. It seems like everyone has it,” said Bob, 73, a flight instructor.

Even before Patel mentioned his research, Bonnie, 74, who used to work part time as a front desk assistant and lives with her husband in Fort Mill, S.C., had wondered whether their cancers were related to the coronavirus. She was infected shortly before her cancer diagnosis.

“Maybe if we didn’t get COVID …” she started before trailing off. Bob shrugged and finished for her. “Maybe we would have been better? Maybe we would have been worse.”

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IMAGES

  1. Research Question Checklist

    how to do research ks2

  2. Biography planner

    how to do research ks2

  3. KS2 Who Inspires You? Research Activity (teacher made)

    how to do research ks2

  4. KS2 Science Investigation Write-Up Sheet (teacher made)

    how to do research ks2

  5. How to Begin Research

    how to do research ks2

  6. How to Do Research (KY Virtual Library)

    how to do research ks2

VIDEO

  1. Mind Maps for Researching

  2. Expert Laminators

  3. Blogs : building blogs

  4. Introduction to Science: Laboratory & Equipment

  5. Children and technology : Key Stage 2

  6. Science

COMMENTS

  1. How to help your child develop research skills

    Sit with your child and demonstrate how using the right search terms can make their research more productive. Get them to look up information using three different terms ranging from the general to the specific, for instance, 'Saxons', 'Saxon life', and 'Saxon houses'. The first will throw up way too much information, while the last ...

  2. BBC

    The tips come from the same people and should make your research easier and better. And who knows - before long, someone might be asking you for tips too! There are three screens in this section ...

  3. 50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills

    It outlines a five-step approach to break down the research process into manageable chunks. This post shares ideas for mini-lessons that could be carried out in the classroom throughout the year to help build students' skills in the five areas of: clarify, search, delve, evaluate, and cite. It also includes ideas for learning about staying ...

  4. Research skills

    Two engaging and resourced hour-long lessons to teach students how to approach Internet research and identify reliable sources of information. This is applicable to any research topic and is suitable for key stage 3 or key stage 4. Students will learn how to: Identify relevant research questions. Critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses ...

  5. Mind Maps for Researching

    In this video, Twinkl's mind maps are a fantastic resource to help your children organise their research and information after learning about a topic or subj...

  6. Working scientifically

    Learn about planning experiments and variables when working scientifically with this Bitesize Science guide. Learn about recording and presenting data and how it relates to working scientifically ...

  7. Internet Research Lesson Pack

    A lesson aimed at guiding pupils through the process of researching a topic on the internet. Good to use just before pupils start a project. Includes reference sheet for books and a poster. Find more researching the internet resources in this collection. Internet Research Lesson Pack contains: Internet Research Lesson Pack Poster A3 [PDF ...

  8. Planning and organisation Conducting research

    Understand the research process. Be able to collect appropriate primary and secondary data and analyse information in order to write a research report.

  9. Teaching Students How To Research

    Link to "Teach Students How To Research" presentation: http://bit.ly/researchlesson*****...

  10. Critical thinking and problem solving Online research

    decide on the type of research you want to carry out; select search words carefully; decide on the type of source; be thorough; evaluate; cite close cite To state where words or information came from.

  11. Research Skills

    Project the next page of the worksheet pack on the board. Discuss the instructions and hints in the box at the top of the page. Read through each paragraph together as a class. Discuss and model note taking strategies, such as: highlighting the informational words only, not the connector words. noting the key facts and details as single words ...

  12. What is research?

    Research. Research is an investigation or study to find out facts in order to reach a conclusion. Download FREE teacher-made resources covering 'research'. View FREE Resources. how to research research skills research template research project research country fact file template internet research skills note taking library how to research ...

  13. Working scientifically: research

    Research enquiries help to develop children's scientific literacy, as children learn to compare and evaluate information from different sources. As children learn to recognise the differences between fact and opinion, and consider the concept of bias, they develop life skills that will support them in being citizens of the twenty-first century.

  14. 6 Secrets to Successful Research with Kids

    Each time that you are seeking text-based evidence with your kids, ask your students to identify the keyword. Use the word "keyword" in your daily discussions. Again. And again. I have found that the youngsters with a strong sense of keywords are the best researchers. 5) Create a final product that is fun and exciting.

  15. Research a Biome Activity Sheet

    This Research a Biome Activity Sheet is a lovely way of encouraging children to do their own research about a biome of their choice. The sheet comes with information boxes for the children to fill in, each with a research prompt to ensure they discover all the most important information about biomes, including areas of the world, flora, fauna, climate and whether their biome is under threat ...

  16. FREE!

    This research concept map template is suited to students in Year 3 and above. To use, simply download, print, and pass around. It has been designed by teachers and educators familiar with the curriculum and it's aims to ensure it's relevant to your classroom and the needs of your students. This is a type of Spider Diagram - find out more about ...

  17. Research Activities

    In this video, Twinkl Teacher Saleena shows you Twinkl's research activity sheets which are great tasks for children to research a new country or topic using...

  18. Research Facts for Kids

    Any research should be: Systematic: from an hypothesis or working objective, scientists gather data according to a scheme set out in advance. From this scientists change ideas or add new knowledge to that already existing. The approach used in research is the scientific method.; Organized: members of a research group use the same definitions, standards and principles.

  19. Generic Learning Research Template

    Generic Learning Research Template. A generic template for children to use in KS2 classrooms when conducting their own non-fiction research- whether about significant people, places or significant events. This double-sided document has the new curriculum in mind, asking children what they already know about a topic of their choosing, before ...

  20. Americans see little bipartisan common ground on ...

    On a wide range of issues, fewer than half of Americans say there is common ground between Republicans and Democrats in Washington. But there are some differences over where the parties do agree. The public continues to see more bipartisan common ground on foreign policy than on topics such as abortion and gun policy, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted May 13-19, 2024, among ...

  21. Iowa universities should commit to protecting animals used in research

    Preston Moore serves as the Iowa state director for the Humane Society of the United States. Moore lives in Cedar Rapids with his wife, daughter and three dogs. Over the past few years, more and ...

  22. Research: Using AI at Work Makes Us Lonelier and Less Healthy

    Joel Koopman is the TJ Barlow Professor of Business Administration at the Mays Business School of Texas A&M University. His research interests include prosocial behavior, organizational justice ...

  23. Biden, Trump supporters both critical of economic ...

    According to a Pew Research Center survey of 8,709 adults - including 7,166 registered voters - conducted April 8-14, 2024: 85% of registered voters who support Biden say that the economic system unfairly favors powerful interests, while just 14% say the system is generally fair to most Americans.

  24. Research Project Worksheet / Worksheets (teacher made)

    A useful worksheet that will encourage your entry level pupils to review their research - great to use as evidence in their portfolio! Recently Viewed and Downloaded › Recently Viewed › Recently Downloaded . Close x. ... fact file template ks2 . note taking template . research . research project . research skills

  25. Ask the expert: How much do presidential debates matter?

    However, research into potential indirect effects of debates — by commanding significant media attention in the days prior to and after their occurrence — have offered stronger evidence of their influence. One such effect involves learning, whereby voters make gains in their understanding of the issues and candidates after the debates.

  26. US views of government's size, efficiency, role ...

    American s are evenly divided in their preferences for the size of government. Yet a somewhat greater share wants the government to do more to solve problems than say it is doing too much better left to others. There is a persistent belief that government is wasteful: 56% say it is "almost always wasteful and inefficient."

  27. 'Unusual' cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if COVID is

    Xuesong Han, scientific director of health services research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the Lancet Oncology study, attributed the jump to people delaying or skipping care ...

  28. How do you record and represent your findings?

    Tally marks are used for counting things. They are small vertical lines, each one representing one unit. The fifth tally mark in a group is always drawn across the first four - as this makes it ...

  29. 10 Good Research Topics for Kids

    Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters. Similarly, extreme weather and natural disasters make for really good research topics for kids. Natural disasters, such as tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, and hurricanes are dramatic and highly destructive. This makes them fascinating for kids to study.

  30. Global e-Waste Monitor 2024: Electronic Waste Rising Five Times Faster

    20 March 2024, Geneva / Bonn - The world's generation of electronic waste is rising five times faster than documented e-waste recycling, the UN's fourth Global E-waste Monitor (GEM) reveals today. The 62 million tonnes of e-waste generated in 2022 would fill 1.55 million 40-tonne trucks, roughly enough trucks to form a bumper-tobumper line encircling the equator, according to the report ...