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Geology Research: ASTR/GEOL/PHYS 260 NASA Space Mission Design

Guidance and key resources for doing academic research in Geology.

Exploring Saturn's Moons from your Desk

Saturn and Titan

Image courtesy of NASA (https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/moons/titan/)
is in the Public Domain

Sources of information about Saturn's moons are varied:

  • Web content, ranges from informal blogs to formal government (NASA) websites
  • Scholarly content includes books and journal articles
  • Conferences are meetings of professionals who share information about their research.

Search Concepts

What do you want to know? AKA Your research question

For example: What organic molecules are present in impact craters on Titan's surface?

Keywords (words you put into search tools)

What words best represent the concepts present in your research question?

For example:

  • The concept of location (Titan)
  • The concept of geographical feature (Impact Crater)
  • The focus concept (Organic molecule)

Scholarly Sources and Conferences

Databases and Conferences

Activity 2

Find a journal article about your chosen area from Activity 1
 

1. Search the Discovery service using keywords
 

2. Limit your result set to peer reviewed journals
 

3. Choose a relevant journal article and access it

Evaluating Sources with the CRAAP Test

Searching for information can be overwhelming. Part of what makes research challenging is that not all information is reliable or high in quality. When evaluating information, a researcher should consider the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose of each source he or she encounters. 

CRAAP Test overview

Text version of the CRAAP test infographic

Activity 1

Find web information about a specific aspect of Titan
 

1. Choose one area to investigate

  • Atmosphere
  • Surface
  • Rivers or Lakes

2. Search the web for information about your area
 

3. Evaluate:

  1. The currency (date) of the information
  2. The relevance of the information you found
  3. The creator (organization or individual(s)) of the site

 

Session Evaluation

Please complete this very short survey about this session. You can also scan the QR Code and complete it on your phone.

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