How to Do Research About Central Park in the School Library by 2-311

Do you know about Central Park? Well, we learned about Central Park by doing the three steps of research in the PS 112 School Library. We are going to teach you about the three steps of research so that you can go to any library and learn about anything you want!

The first step of research is: what do I know. Here is what we already knew about Central Park.

Gabriel - There are many hawks.

Yaretzi - There are a lot of animals in Central Park such as squirrels and birds.

Nikolai - There’s lots of different kinds of trees.

Jamar - You can climb on the rocks.

Lauren - There are many different kinds of flowers in Central Park.

Christopher - You can watch a Shakespeare play.

Alexander - There is an “Alice in Wonderland” statue.

Alex - There are lakes. There’s also a zoo.

April - There’s a memory spot for The Beatles. You can also look at the Shakespeare Garden.

Bernard - There are turtles.

The second step of research is: what do I wonder. When I wonder, I ask questions. The best questions are open-ended questions. Open-ended questions are questions that always start with one of the six question words, which are: who, what, where, when, why, or how. We ask open-ended questions because they have more answers than close-ended questions. Our open-ended questions about Central Park were:

Gabriel - What do we feed the turtles?

Yaretzi - Who was the first person to go to Central Park?

Nikolai - Who is the first person to go to the Central Park Zoo?

Jamar - How big is Central Park? 843 acres How big is an acre?

Lauren - What year was Central Park finished being built?

Christopher - How long did it take to build Central Park?

Alexander - Who made Central Park?

Alex - Where did they build Central Park Zoo?

April - Why did they build the statues?

Bernard - How long has Central Park been established?

The third step of research is: searching for facts. First we use books and then we use computers. When we use computers, we always use databases first. A database is like BrainPop, Jr. Here are the answers we found using books, databases, and websites with good sources.

Gabriel - What do we feed the turtles? Nothing! DO NOT FEED PARK TURTLES!

Yaretzi - Who was the first person to go to Central Park? You cannot know who was the first person to go, but I think the person who won the contest to design the park.

Nikolai - Who is the first person to go to the Central Park Zoo? Philip Holmes put a bear cub in the zoo in the late 1850s and went there first.

Jamar - How big is Central Park? 843 acres How big is an acre? 1 acre = 43,560 square feet

Lauren - What year was Central Park finished being built? It took 15 years.

Christopher - How long did it take to build Central Park? It took 15 years to build Central Park.

Alexander - Who made Central Park? There was a contest to see who could design a park for New York City. Olmstead and Veaux won!

Alex - Where did they build Central Park Zoo? Central Park Zoo was made in 64th Street + 5th Avenue New York, NY 10065.

April - Why did they build the statues? In the beginning, when the park was being designed, there were no statues in the park. At that time there was a war. When it ended, the people in the park decided that that there should be statues.

Bernard - How long has Central Park been established? Central Park has been established for 165 years.

So now you have learned the three steps of research!