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1. By following only links, find a site that offers free sheet music for choirs.

When you know what you want but can only follow links, the best place to start is a SUBJECT DIRECTORY. In this case, use Google's Directory and think, "in which category does my search belong?" This requires higher-order thinking that goes backwards from something specific to more general words until you find a match in the first layer of the Google Directory. Since free sheet music is a product, there must be a business associated with it. Therefore, one directory path might start with BUSINESS and link to related words that move closer to "Free Sheet Music." There are often a number of intermediate steps that makes this complicated.

Here are two different paths to free sheet music we found using the Directory:

Business > Publishing and Printing > Publishing > Music > Choral > [free sheet music sites]

Arts > Music > Styles > C > Choral > Sheet Music > [free sheet music sites]

 

2. Starting with the word Solar Supernova, find an online space mystery game.

When you are given specific keywords, it is always best to use a SEARCH ENGINE. In this case, enter the query solar supernova and scan the snippets for indications of a space mystery game. Here's the first snippet and it matches almost all the words we need (it's also the answer):

Space Mysteries: Solar Supernova

SOLAR SUPERNOVA MISSION BRIEFING. Greetings, Space Sleuth! Don't get me wrong, we love Professor Starzapoppin, but he's a little eccentric sometimes. ...
mystery.sonoma.edu/solarsupernova/index.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages

3. Starting at the bugbios site, find a beetle game that lets you learn about the development of a beetle while you play.

When you are already at a web page, explore or try to BROWSE links deliberately to find information you need. This is similar to following increasingly specific links in a directory until you end up at the beetle game described. However, links alone don't provide a lot of keyword information on which to base a decision. This makes browsing links the hardest method of searching and can really test one's patience. Dead ends abound; a lot of turning around is required.

If you looked for links associated with the words beetle game, you might have discovered this path:

  • bugbios (http://www.insects.org/)
  • images and sound library (http://www.coleoptera.org/p167.htm)
  • images and pictures (http://www.coleoptera.org/p169.htm)
  • Beetles by A. Bochdansky & M. Kriftner (http://beetles.source.at/)

Notice that three different web sites are visited in this journey. None of the links are particularly enlightening (although coleoptera in the URL is a clue), still, there is a common thread that may be followed from one page to the next.

Remember the seven degrees of separation connecting every human on the planet? Well, something similiar operates on the Internet, connecting one page with all the rest, although there is thought to be more than seven degrees of separation. If you're curious and want to find out more about that, what type of search would you use? Can you find the answer?