Research Tools

Primary and Secondary Sources

These are the two types of sources people use when doing research
Primary sources are those that are written from first-hand accounts
- These have been created by someone that was at an event
- Like if you went to a concert and then wrote about it
- Written accounts like letters, speeches, newspaper articles, and autobiographies
Secondary sources are written after an event took place and use a primary source for information
- Like if you told a friend about the concert
- This is like history books, historical essays, and biographies

Maps are 2-D flat images of Earth’s surface
Different maps have different purposes
- Political maps show man-made features like borders between states or countries
- Physical maps show the landscape of a certain area like mountains, lakes, rivers, plains, etc
- Thematic maps show a variety of different topics like economic activity, battles during a war, population density, etc

Charts are visual representations of something
- They show the information in an organized, simplified manner
- They allow information on related topics to be shown visually
- They can be used to summarize, compare and contrast, or show cause and effect
Tables are similar to charts because they show information
- Charts organize information with numerical information
- Information is organized into rows and columns for ease of use
Diagrams use visual representations to show information
- There are a variety of diagrams like illustrations, Venn diagrams, and web diagrams

Graphs show stats in a visual manner
- Line graphs show changes over time or trends
- Pie graphs show info in the shape of a circle that represents all of the data and each slice represents the groups that make up all the data
- Bar graphs compare numbers or sets of numbers with the length of each bar showing quantity

Remote Sensing
- This technology gathers data about Earth’s surface through aerial photography and helps cartographers make more accurate maps
Global Positioning System (GPS)
- GPS has created a more accurate navigation system
- Exact locations can be easily determined by satellites
- This makes directions easy to follow
Geographic Information Science (GIS)
- This is a complex computer program that takes data from a variety of sources and creates a map with layers
- These layers can be added or removed