Updated Challenges

I received several requests lately to update some of the Search Challenges at the Information Fluency site, http://21cif.com.

Here's what's refreshed:

Lego Lady 1
What former Lego Employee living in the United States has been called the Lego Lady?

• This is now an intermediate to advanced search challenge. Results that are several years old and no longer in the news require a different search strategy; in this case it's important to know Where to search.

Lego Lady 2
In 2007, what Lego employee in the United Kingdom was called the Lego Lady?

• I changed the task to keep it a novice challenge. This one requires reading the results to make sure a relevant solution is selected.

Teen Drivers and Cell Phones
On what day was the bill that prohibits anyone under the age of 19 from using a cell phone while driving introduced to the Illinois General Assembly?

• Due to changes in Illinois law since this was written, the challenge was updated. It is now an advanced challenge that involves multiple search steps.

Blog Challenge
What is the name of the blogger who, in 2007, posted a top ten list of the lessons he's learned from watching t-ball players?

• Old blogs never die, they just go to the bottom of the list. Technorati is not a good choice for searching for vintage blogs. Google Blog Search does a better job.

Highest Freshwater Lake
What is the name of the highest freshwater lake in Tibet?

• I updated the answer page--the sample answer page was removed by NASA. Never fear, there are other pages that answer the question. Multiple answers to the question require careful evaluation. 

In updating these, I discovered that several Search Challenge questions have been posed to Answer.com--someone must have thought that might be the best way to find an answer. Unfortunately--for the searcher--Answers.com does not have correct answers for these items.

Try them out to keep your skills sharp or given them to students. I'm considering adding short video explanations about strategies and techniques that are useful for solving challenges like these.

If you encounter difficulties or broken links with other Search Challenges, just let me know.