Lesson 4- SIRS Discoverer and Issues Reasearcher

SIRS Discoverer is for Grades K-9.  It contains selected full text magazine and newspaper articles that meet today's curriculum needs. The articles included have been selected as safe, trustworthy and non commercial.
1. I searched  Kangaroo in the subject headings. It brought up 365 articles, of which 43 were newspaper, 266 magazine, 51 reference, 37 graphics and 0 webfind sites. I wanted to look at a graphic and scrolled down to an article titled Koala Chaos that was not about Kangaroos at all, but about Koalas that had been relocated to Kangaroo Island. It did have images of Koalas.
2.Using the Database features, I selected Country Facts. It displays 3 different choices- Country Facts, United States Facts and Canada Facts.  When I chose Europe, an alphabetical drop down of over 50 countries was displayed. I selected Ireland. There were basic facts about languages, capital city, size etc., but also references and a link that took me to the subject heading page, where I found 15 articles.
Back at the Database features I opened Maps of the World. I selected United States. This includes Territories. I selected Iowa. It gave me a simple map with several labeled cities. It included railroad lines and the names of surrounding states. It did not allow me to cross over the state lines and get similar information. While some bodies of water were shown, it only identified 2 of the rivers.
Another Database feature that I explored was Activities. It listed 22 categories with projects to make or do. I opened Jokes and Riddles. How does a bunny keep his fur looking good? Thank goodness the answers were provided. My dad will like this one.
SIRS Researcher is for student's grades 6-12. It has an A-Z list of leading issues that students may research.
1.Clicking on Banned Books brought up a page with a topic overview and definition, and tabs for quick search, advanced search, topic browse, database features and common core correlation. It has a box with Pros and Cons and some articles to support each and an interactive link to a video .
2.When selecting Pathfinders, 6 courses are offered; Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Fine Arts and Health . When investigating Health, I found it divided into 4 Courses with 3-6 areas in each. 17 research ideas, a health related How Do I? question, the name of a notable person in health and 2 interactive videos were also included.
 I guess you are still wondering about that riddle in SIRS Discoverer. ...Hare spray. Groan.

Lesson 2

This week we explored 3 sites. I started with Chilton Library for Auto Repair Manuals. The first car I looked up was my husband's '63 Dodge 880. There was a repair link, but nothing on maintenance, recalls or labor estimating. Then I tried my 2013 Honda- not much there either. I hit the jackpot of information when I searched for the 1999 Seems-Like-Always-Broken-Down red pickup that lives in my driveway. There were 335 items to choose from! I entered maintenance schedule for 30,000 miles. Hopefully way back then, someone replaced the air cleaner and filter, serviced or inspected the accessory belt and replaced the automatic transmission fluid and filter. The earliest technical bulletin or recall that I found was in 2002. Figures, right about the time a 3 year warranty would expire. The last bulletin was 12/5/14 about tire vibration.
The repair information is presented in a 'tree' configuration. This is the path I took from BRAKES.
Brakes
    Brake Operating
         Brake light and switch
               Removal and installation
At the end was a great video showing how to remove the old switch and install a new one. I think I could do it. However the brake light switch on this truck actually works. If it were up to me, this truck would be for sale!
This is a good site for someone who would like to know more about the guts in an auto than I.

Next site- Mango Languages.
This site would be helpful in learning 60 different languages. It has webinars, but none were available when I was checking it out. There are nice photographs of the places where each language is spoken. Each language has lesson tutorials  broken down into scenarios or topics. First you see the text of a conversation written in English (or the language you are translating from.) As the dialogue is spoken, the text changes to the other language. There is a repeat button so you can easily  go back to listen again and practice.
There is also a function that will let you translate a few words or short phase. I will recommend this to my friend Sharon and my daughter Suzy. Sharon likes to order hot tea with cream in the language of the country she is traveling in. Suzy just says Cheers!
A Vietnamese student can improve her English with Mango Languages. I think reading and hearing English helps students learn pronunciation and sentence structure in a private, non judgmental environment. The repeat option allows for convenient repetition.

My favorite part of Lesson 2  is TumblebookLibrary.
I chose the storybook I Have To Go, by Robert Munsch. There was a description of the book, a book review and reading levels listed by accelerated reading, grade, Lexile, and Common Core. I could listen and follow along the highlighted words, or muting the sound and reading it myself. I could turn the pages or let the program do it. The story was read in animated voices with lots of expression. It was fun to listen to while looking at the pictures.
After 'reading' the book a couple ways, I put together a puzzle depicting one of the pages in the book. I do not think the difficulty of the puzzle matched the appropriate age of the reader, but there was applause when I finally finished. If there had been a timer function, I may have tried it a couple more times to see if I could improve. This is a great resource for anyone with children. Beginning readers can follow along or read themselves. Children can entertain themselves while Mom is making supper or giving the baby a bath. I like the option to make a favorites list or playlist.
I am looking forward to Learning Express next week.
Stay warm!

Lesson One World Book Online

The first challenge (after figuring out what my library card password was) was to go to World Book Kids and search for information on a mammal. I searched for groundhogs. Here is a picture of a groundhog, more commonly known as a woodchuck.Woodchucks are mainly found in Canada and Northeastern United States. They live in dens or burrows. A video with the answer to the age old question 'How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?' was included.
Then I searched Groundhog in the World Book Student. There were 4 encyclopedia articles, up from 2 in the Kids. Of the 4, only one was about the mammal called a groundhog. I find it interesting that both the Kids and Student World Book had an entry about Bill Murray under the search for Groundhog. The Student edition also had a cute video and a link to a magazine article where I found that Punxsutawney Phil is correct less than half the time.
As a student, I would have a difficult time writing much of a scientific report on groundhogs from the information in these 2 sources.
The next source I checked was World Book Advanced, where I searched for Ireland. There were 849 items. The left column had 16 subcategories. When I clicked on each of these, the list of items in the category came up on the right. There is an option to 'save to my research.' Back in my youth, we would put a slip of paper, a pencil or our fingers to mark a section that we might want to go back to when doing research. I think I like this.
In World Book Discover I needed to find American government. The topics have photos by them to help students or patrons who are English  reading challenged. There is a language translator toolbar to change the language of the printed text and a read aloud feature that allows the reader to listen as they follow along the highlighted text.
When looking up my groundhog again in World Book Public Online for Kids, it had the same information as the World Book Student but also had the read aloud feature, text language translator, and definition option.
In the Online Public Libraries Info Finder I found a link to the Rapid City Journal. Unfortunately I am easily distracted when exploring. The information on Mr. Groundhog looked identical to that on the World Book Student.
The information on Ireland  was the same in World Book Advanced and World Book Online Reference.
I found a picture of Marmota americana in the Spanish Language encyclopedia. It looked like it had the same information as the English articles about my groundhog. It even included that sentence on Groundhog's Day.
Looks like I'm out of room. Until next time. Lynda

January 10, 2015

Today is the beginning of my first blog. I am taking on
The South Dakota State Library’s E-Resources Challenge.
Let the fun learning begin.