Minecraft Challenge

Play the Minecraft Challenge

Microsoft acquired Minecraft in 2014 for $2.5 billion. That's a lot of money to pay for a video game.

From 2014 through 2020, how much revenue did Microsoft earn with Minecraft? 

This search challenge exercises "know what you are looking for." The challenge is also timed--see if you can answer the question correctly in under 3 minutes.

https://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/search/minecraft.html

Needle and Haystack

For a limited time, try out a new feature: Needle and Haystack.

These four search challenges are based on several challenges recently posted in this blog. The format includes clues that lead the way to the solutions.

Try them out and leave any feedback you want.

https://21cif.com/INTERNETSEARCHCHALLENGE/challenges/needle/haystack

The subscription version will track user's scores and include additional challenges.

Haunted Search Challenge

At this time of year, scary attractions abound: yard displays, haunted houses, horror film festivals. It's also possible to find creepy hiking trails open year-round.

Where can you find this year-round haunted trail?

Use these clues to locate the name of the park, all associated with this allegedly haunted location.

Haunted
Trail
Park
Think of keywords associated with Halloween

Once you locate a likely place, verify you found the right one
by reading its history of mysteries that go back well over a century.

Squirrelly Challenge

Here's how Merriam Webster's online dictionary uses Squirrelly in a sentence:

It was the end of the school year, when all the kids get a little squirrelly

It's easy to find what the word means. But what causes squirrels to behave this way?

Help us build this search challenge. Send the URL of an authoritative article or document that provides a clue to wizard@21cif.com

Acorn Challenge

Try this search challenge.

Inside an acorn's tough leathery shell is a thin coating layer that sticks to the nut meat. What is that coating called?

Submit your solution and how you found it here: wizard@21cif.com

Keyword Search Challenge

Looking for a challenge to keep your search skills sharp? Identify the author of the image below:

Send your solution to wizard@21cif.com

New LEGO Challenge

Improvements in Google algorithm have made the Lego History Challenge too easy to solve as a Level 2 Challenge.

Consequently, a new challenge has replaced it: https://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/search/legovault.html

This is one of six free search challenges on the Information Fluency site and is intended to help diagnose novice problems with querying. Failure to answer this challenge indicates one or more of the following:

1. Not understanding the question
2. Using more than a minimum of keywords
3. Not browsing effectively--skimming too fast

The answer does not appear in the snippets/abstracts if too many keywords are used, in which case browsing the results is necessary.

See how you do. It's a Level 2 (out of 6).

Fullcircle Summer 2017

Most countries celebrate a special day of national significance. In the United States, that day is the fourth of July. Other countries have their own days citizens celebrate. But could there be a country other than the United States that celebrates American independence on the fourth of July?

What nation other than the U.S. observes America’s Fourth of July?

Unless you know the answer, this can be a perplexing search challenge. Why is that? How do you possibly wade through an ocean of information about American fourth of July looking for information about a different country? The solution is sound search strategy.

Strategic searching is guided by three big questions

1. What am I searching for?
2. What authority would know the answer?
3. How do I use keywords (and operators) to find the information?

Read the whole Feature Article: Summer 2017.  https://21cif.com/fullcircle/summer2017/feature.php

Search Challenge 002

A very popular search challenge is the Kermit Challenge.

I'd rate this a novice challenge and a good one to introduce elementary level students to search strategy, search engines, keywords, snippets and urls.

When it was first created, we posted a time to beat of 10 minutes. The only thing that would ever take this long is an inability to describe in words what is in the picture. If someone failed to use the character's name, that could slow down the search.

 Today I lowered the time to beat to 5 minutes. It takes less than a minute if you know what you are looking for.

Search Strategy 
Start by asking, "what am I looking for?" The directions call for finding a URL of a matching picture of Kermit, a URL where Kermit can be heard talking. If students don't know what a URL is, this is a good opportunity to point to one. No need to define it, just call it the address where a page on the Internet lives. Show a URL.

Keywords 
Also part of the search strategy is, "what words do I already know that I could use to find the matching picture?" The most important is given in the directions: Kermit. This is a proper noun and as such, has a very specific meaning. We want to use words that have specific meanings--if we can--when looking for information on the Internet. Other words need to come from the picture. "What do you see in the picture?" Describe it. "What is Kermit wearing?" "At what kind of an event would you wear clothes like that?"

Search Engines 
Search engines use Keywords to find matching information. The engine used here is Yahoo. Students should know that there is more than one search engine (Google). You can put any combination of words in a search engine, but it's best to use just a few. The order of the words doesn't really matter. Like most searches today, this one does not require any Boolean operators, but I'd leave that topic for older grades.

Snippets 
Search engines return matches to your keywords on a page as snippets, shortened sections of text that include the URL of the page where matching words were found, maybe the date the page was last updated, some text from the page so you can see how the words are used, a link to the page and some other information that can be topics for older grades (cached, similar). Snippets are REALLY important in finding information that matches the keywords. The search engine just finds the words, you have to determine if the way the words are used makes sense. The top result may not be the best one. Snippets may also (often) contain better words than the ones you started with. Maybe the words commencement or graduation show up. That's where people wear caps and gowns. Those words could be put in a new query such as KERMIT GRADUATION.

URL 
A little more about URLS could be introduced, such as the parts of a URL and what they tell us. In this case, the answer has the name of the organization that owns the information and the names of several folders where that information is stored: first, a news folder. Inside the news folder is another folder called 'commence' and in that folder is another one labeled '1996.' Finally in that folder is the page that matches the challenge. This page is an .htm page which stands for the kind of file it is, a pretty common information file on the Internet.

Planting the seeds that information can be organized (structured) in folders is a good computational mindset to introduce. A discussion about how to organize information (one big pile, separate piles without names, all laid out in a row, etc.) might help students think about the fastest ways to find something and what works best on computers.

 Try the Challenge. Don't miss the opportunity for learning. What other lessons can you squeeze out of this experience?

2018 Update: The Kermit Challenge became quite a bit more difficult with Long Island University absorbed Southampton College and took down the latter's Website. The answer page has been updated accordingly.

Updating Search Challenges

With over 30 Search Challenges on our site at 21st Century Information Fluency Project we rely on our community to let us know when good answers no longer work.

We received an email this week from Teresa, ICT Leader at Drouin Secondary College (Australia) about the Kermit Challenge The once-correct answer was no longer working.

Taking a closer look, the college that hosts the "answer" changed to www2 instead of www, and the new answer wasn't being recognized. A simple change to the Flash program and now the Kermit Challenge is back up and running.  This may be the most popular of our Search Challenges.

The point to be made is that we don't routinely check these older challenges. If you discover an answer that works, but you are told it's not an acceptable answer, please write to us and we'll refresh the challenge.

Write to us at help@21cif.com.

A change we will be making soon to our challenges is to connect them to a database that records the elapsed time and whether the answer is correct. This will enable users to see how often other users are correct and how long it took on average.

Be a Part of Gaming History Search Challenge

Here's an idea for a challenge that I'm thinking of developing into a flash search challenge:

What adventure game is described by its creator using the phrase: be a part of gaming history

Find the name of the game. Submit your answer and how you found it.

New Search Challenge: Slinky

It was bound to happen.

Someone submitted a Search Challenge question to Answers.com and finally got a correct answer. Therefore, it's time to retire old Search Challenge #6, the Apollo 8 Toy Challenge.

I'd like to introduce its replacement; Search Challenge #102, the Slinky Challenge.

If you would, please test it; see if you can solve it. It could be classified as an intermediate challenge.

I designed this challenge to require careful reading of the question, the snippets that result from queries and the content of web pages that may hold an answer.  In addition to careful reading, an optimal strategy involves "deep web" searching. One of the best places to search is the NASA site. Relying solely on Google, the query is packed with keywords. On the NASA site, a query of only two words works quite well.

Go ahead and give me your feedback, but don't include the answer, because then this blog will become another source of the answer (and one that will work with a Google search).

Olympics on the Moon

Now that Rio de Janeiro has been awarded the 2016 games, who is going to bid for the 2020 games? One suggestion is the moon. The Internet Search Challenge is to find the date of the earliest online reference to a moon Olympics. Let's start with March 30, 2007. I know you can beat that.

Post your answers and references in the comments.

P.S. I don't know the earliest answer (just that there's one earlier than March 30, 2007). You can help find the earliest and turn this into a student challenge.

Happy July 4!

Here's a new Search Challenge in time for Independence Day. It was inspired by reports of the discovery of a copy of the Declaration of Independence in the National Archives in London. Originally, around 200 copies were printed. The whereabouts of the majority of these is unknown.

http://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/SC001/SC_034.swf


See if you can rise to the challenge.

The Trivial Nature of Search Challenges

If you google internet search challenge, the top results are published by 21cif, including this blog. But there are other challenges out there:

Internet Search Challenge

Kim Bauman put together 10 questions that can be answered using a search engine, such as:

1. Define garrulous.
2. Who stated that The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do?
3. Where is Mosi-oa-Tunya located?

The answers are on the site and may be used as a quick set of challenges using Google.

Jr. High Internet Search Challenge

St. Marys Schools (OH) published this 73-item pencil and paper trivia information challenge with items such as:

1. Find a copycat recipe for Outback Steakhouse’s Bloomin’ Onion
2. Who was the voice of Darth Vadar in the Star Wars movies?
3. Who is the current head coach of the Arena Football League’s Columbus team?

They link to it as a Junior High Search Challenge, although the url or the pdf doesn't describe it that way. Searching for 73 items would take a pretty good block of time, but it's possible to select fewer items. No search key provided.

Internet Search Challenge

This one or two player game published by Boise State University has automated features, like dice to select the type of search tool to be used, and timed search challenges. The objective is to find the correct answer to the question before the hourglass runs out (there's also a stop watch function). Sample questions include:

1. What was the name for one of the first computers invented in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania?
   Bonus: How much space did it take up?
2. What is the name for a number followed by 100 zeros.
   Bonus: How do you write this number with exponents?

Internet Search Challenge

Tom Sloan at University of West Virginia has posted a search exercise (9 items) for his English 102 course, including questions like:

1. What is the real name for Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan?
2. What is the meaning of the Welsh word "cymru?"

The directions for this exercise include explaining how the answer was obtained.

As this sampling makes clear, the task in most search challenges is to locate obscure information, usually intended to be of interest to the searcher. In addition, the task may be to use a specific type of tool in the process and to keep track of one's search to explain how an answer was found (a difficult thing to remember, actually). The task in all these is what I consider 'speculative searching': you don't know for certain what words to use or where to look.

There are few 'investigative searches,' yet this is where students need the most help. They tend to accept information uncritically; they don't often have investigative questions in mind when they search. So let me leave you with one: what is the author's real reason for producing the site: Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus? It's a hoax site, but why? Why does the author invest the energy in keeping the site fresh (and misleading)?

This is a deeper type of search challenge and requires more thought than answering trivia. In fact, the answer is not known. It's a real challenge. If you or your students want to tackle the question--what motivates the author of the Tree Octopus site?-- feel free to add your comments here.