Teaching with Games

Developing a search query can be a challenge. Here are some tips to help.

• Check out a database's Thesaurus to find appropriate keywords for the item for which you are looking. 

• A longer search query helps databases retrieve more specific resources

• Using "OR" between terms will retrieve more results

• Using "AND" between terms will retrieve less results
   
• Use a * (star) truncation symbol, which acts as a wildcard to broaden a search by finding variations of a word's ending, e.g. math*
   
• Use " " (quotation marks) to tell the database to treat the enclosed words as an exact phrase, e.g. "matching games"
   
• Add "Study and teaching" as a search concept to find resources about the educational aspects of studying and teaching a particular subject
   
• Add grade or level of education (e.g. elementary, secondary) to your search strategy.
   
• To find physical games, filter your search results by Resource Type and selecting games and/or realia

Try these search terms when searching the library catalogue:

• Keyword: "game* "
• Subject: "Educational games"
• Subject: "Education--Simulation methods"
• Subject: "Game-based learning"
• More Subjects: Puzzles, Blocks (Toys), Dice, Matching games,  Mathematical recreations, Games of strategy (Mathematics), etc.