Divide the classroom whiteboard into two sides, and write one research question (related to the class) on each side of the board
Underline keywords in each of the research questions
Divide class into two teams, and ask for a volunteer from each team
Tell students they have 2 minutes to come up with as many synonyms as possible for each of the keywords; whichever team comes up with more keywords, wins
Show students the difference between searching for the entire research question, only the original keywords, and the keywords plus synonyms in a database
Have students repeat the activity with their own research topics
Shuffle and Deal
Distribute one playing card to each student
Ask students to stand if they have face cards AND red cards, or stand if they have hearts OR sevens
Demonstrate a search that would retrieve zero results (e.g. spades AND hearts)
