SIRS

SIRS Discoverer First Task- look up armadillos. It was easy to search and I clicked on the first option. I picked the first option because I thought that may be the first reaction of an elementary student. It was a good selection: an article on “Awesome Armadillos” by Diane Thuna that appeared in Wild magazine…in 2003. I’m sure information on Armadillos hasn’t changed much over time, but in some cases 10 year old research can be outdated. I liked the access to information, but I think that it is going to be hard for students, especially younger ones to get their heads around the idea that this was in a magazine. They’d like to see it. (I would have settled for just seeing the cover of the magazine.) But this magazine is designed for kids. I’m sure that it was full of pictures and text boxes with little bits of information to make it appealing to young students. Now, when I need it for research I am forced to look at just the text. To me, this tells young students that research is the boring part of reading. With the technology of tablets, we should be able to see the magazine article. That way we show students that they can be entertained and interested while doing their research. Next task: database features. Country Facts. I had options of Country Facts, State Facts, and Canada Facts. This was very straight-forward. I was able to click on a country and find the basic facts and see a map and their flag. It’s useful information, but I do not think that this beats the CIA World Factbook. Maps of the World. I could find almost any map here. I looked at the Historical Maps. There were so many maps. And they had printable versions! This is an excellent resource for teachers to find maps for their classes. Historical maps are a great resource to illustrate change over time. Skills Discoverer. I selected Social Studies for a topic and then selected maps. This led me to a list of areas that I could find maps for. Which led me to the CIA website. It seemed a long way around to get to a site I already use. SIRS Issues Researcher: I like that the SIRS Researcher gives “leading issues,” this is perfect for students who “have no idea what to do.” I looked at the top ten and most of the topics made sense to me. They seemed to be the same controversial issues that were discussed when I was in high school: gun control, abortion, marijuana use. Among these issues was cheerleading. I was curious as to what the “issue” was with cheerleading. I was interested in the debate over whether or not cheerleading was a sport. I liked that the pros and cons were laid right out for me when I was looking. Research Tools. The note organizer was amazing! I could easily see using this with students. It would help them to keep their paper balanced. And they are right where the research is so they would easily be able to see if one side was stronger than the other, then they could even it out. Articles. There were a ton of articles out there on a topic that I didn’t even realize was being debated. This is where I learned the most: if student comes to me with a topic in mind ask for them to show me that there is research available. If someone would have come to me wanting to discuss the topic of cheerleading being a sport I would have wondered where they would get their information. Now, I’m wondering what else is out there. ~Common Core~ 11-12.RH.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. SIRS Issues Researcher could be used when a student is writing their research paper to ensure that the research is balanced. The cheerleading articles were a good combination of primary and secondary sources. And with so many to choose from students will be able to find proof to make their argument easily. (I was not impressed with the Educator’s Resources.)