When I did projects and assignments in school, I always used wiki as my starting point. It's a great resource. You couldn't use it as a source in your work at school, but it's a good place to get background information so you know all the basics. From there you can build an outline of what you need from other sources and then it's easier to find books, magazines, or more "respectable" sites to help you out.
It would be so much faster if schools would just let you quote wiki and be done with it but... oh well. XD