Teach 5

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AP Seminar CED (official course description) EBSCO (via AP Digital Portfolio) Google Scholar

Forgot the Setup? Start Here

You will forget how to get into these tools. Everyone does. Run this checklist at the start of every work session, in order, until all three tabs are open.

Tab 1: BibGuru

  1. Go to bibguru.com.
  2. Log in with your school Google account (the same one you use for Google Classroom).
  3. If it asks for a class code, enter 6A3H7417.
  4. Open your PT1 source list. If you do not see it, you are in the wrong account; log out and back in with your school Google account.

Tab 2: Your Annotated Bibliography Doc

  1. Open Google Classroom and go to the PT1 Annotated Bibliography assignment.
  2. Open your copy of the Doc (the one with your name on it). Never work in a teammate’s copy.
  3. Lost your copy? Tell your teacher the same day.

Tab 3: EBSCO and Google Scholar

  1. Go to digitalportfolio.collegeboard.org and sign in with your College Board account.
  2. Open your Class Summary, click Overview, and click the EBSCO link at the bottom of the page.
  3. In a second tab, open Google Scholar. No login needed.
Every work session starts the same way: BibGuru open, Doc open, EBSCO and Google Scholar open. Then research.

What You Will Do This Week

One artifact per day: a fully logged source. A source counts as logged when its citation sits in BibGuru, its citation is pasted and verified in your Annotated Bibliography Doc, and both annotation paragraphs are written.

  • Monday, Nov 9: Set up day. Join BibGuru with the class code below, open your PT1 Annotated Bibliography Doc, write your locked team question and your lens sub-question at the top, and complete Source 1 in full.
  • Tuesday, Nov 10: Complete Sources 2 and 3. Also log one rejected source in the back of your Doc, with the credibility pillar it failed.
  • Wednesday, Nov 11: No school (Veterans Day). Nothing is due. Reading ahead is allowed and smart.
  • Thursday, Nov 12: Complete Sources 4 and 5. Then run a team gap audit: lay your sources next to your teammates’ sources. Which perspective is missing? Which lens is thin?
  • Friday, Nov 13 (half day): Complete Source 6. The required core is done. Each team closes with a 60-second stand-up: your question, your strongest source, your biggest gap.

Sources 7 to 10 are additional research (the gold section of your Doc). Same format, any time, for a stronger evidence base or an extra perspective.

End-of-week target: six core sources fully annotated, at least one rejected source logged, and a real range of perspectives. At least two of your sources must disagree with each other about the problem.

BibGuru: Your Citation Vault

BibGuru stores your sources and formats their citations in MLA 9. That is its whole job. It does not hold annotations; your Doc does. Citations live in BibGuru, thinking lives in the Doc.

Join the class

  1. Go to bibguru.com and sign up or log in with your school Google account.
  2. Enter the class code when asked:

6A3H7417

  1. Add every source to BibGuru first, before you annotate it anywhere.
  2. Copy the finished MLA 9 citation out of BibGuru and paste it into the next entry in your Doc. Then verify it: italics, capitalization, punctuation, hanging indent. BibGuru formats it, but you are responsible for it.

If BibGuru will not load or the code fails, tell your teacher the same day. A citation you cannot recover is a source you cannot use.

How to Work the Annotated Bibliography

Your working document is your own copy of the PT1 Annotated Bibliography Doc, assigned in Google Classroom.

  1. Find the source (EBSCO first, then Google Scholar; see the next section).
  2. Save it in BibGuru under the class code.
  3. Paste the MLA 9 citation into the next entry in your Doc and verify it.
  4. Write Paragraph 1: Summary and Line of Reasoning (about 75 to 100 words). The author’s thesis, main claims, line of reasoning, and the specific evidence used.
  5. Write Paragraph 2: Lateral Credibility and Lens Fit (about 75 to 100 words). Judge the source with the Three Pillars of Credibility (Authority, Publication Context, Purpose and Interests), then close with one sentence on exactly how this source answers part of your lens sub-question.
  6. Audit and mark: trade entries with a partner from another team for a peer audit, revise, and set the entry status to Final.

Work in the order you find your sources. You will alphabetize at the end, when this Doc becomes the bibliography of your IRR. The Doc is also your Checkpoint 1 evidence: it is the log your teacher reviews with you.

How to Find Research Articles

Start in EBSCO, through the AP Digital Portfolio

This is the route that works, because your AP Capstone access rides on your College Board account. Direct EBSCO links and the school library route do not carry that access.

  1. Go to the AP Digital Portfolio and sign in with your College Board account (the same one you use for My AP).
  2. Open your Class Summary and click Overview.
  3. Click the EBSCO link at the bottom of the page. You are in; no separate password.

AP Digital Portfolio (EBSCO access) Google Scholar

Search like a researcher

  • Build the search from your sub-question: pull out the key concepts, not the whole question.
  • Combine concepts with AND, widen with OR, cut noise with NOT. Put exact phrases in quotation marks.
  • Use the filters: peer-reviewed, full text, and a date range that fits your problem.
  • Read the abstract first. If it does not serve your sub-question, move on. If it was close, log it as a rejected source with your reason.
  • Mine one good source: its reference list is a map to your next three.

Then use Google Scholar to trace

  • Search the title of a source you already trust, then use Cited by to walk forward to newer work that builds on it.
  • Quotation marks for exact phrases; author:lastname to find everything by one scholar.
  • Scholar finds; you verify. Before a Scholar source goes into your bibliography, open the full text (EBSCO, the publisher’s site, or a PDF link) and check the citation details against the source itself. If you can only see the abstract, you have not read it.
A source is not yours until you have read it and can state its line of reasoning without looking.

Keep These Open While You Work

PT1 Team Field Guide BibGuru EBSCO (via AP Digital Portfolio) Google Scholar