Lesson 4 -- SIRS Issues Researcher and Discoverer

SIRS Discoverer
1. I like when I started typing armadillos in the search bar of the SIRS discoverer that suggestions that fit the letters I was typing came up. I think this would be beneficial to younger students that might not know how to spell the whole word.
When the search results came up there are tabs at the top with all articles, newspaper, magazine, reference, graphics and webfinds. This would help students easily pick from the type of resource they wanted in the first place. The list is automatically sorted by relevance to the word search, but can be sorted by date of material and the lexile.  The search results have a little picture of what source it is by it. The first four resources when searching armadillo are magazine sources. Behind each title there is a book with a color that shows the reading level, an apple representing subjects and a camera showing that there is a picture with the article. I really that that under each clickable title it has the source already properly cited so the students would just need to copy this for their bib pages.It also has a summary of the article and the descriptors that could be searched to find this article.

2. Country Facts has recently been updated per the little sign next to it before I click on it. Once clicked on the country facts brings up 3 different boxes: Country Facts, with a A-Z list of countries to click on; State facts with the option of regions of the United States or an A-Z list; and Canada facts, broke up into territories and provinces or an A-Z list. I clicked the A-Z list for the states and then clicked on OHIO. It brought up basic facts and the flag about Ohio, with more links to other information.
Maps of the world brings up 7 globe like icons for various map types. This could be used for studying states and countries. The historical ones could help with talking about history and understanding the land then better than using a today map to explain history. These maps would aide tremendously with a project of planning a trip across the country or to another country. These could be used if a new student comes from somewhere else than the town you are in or if you have foreign exchange students.
I clicked on the activities link on the right hand side. Up came a list of 22 categories of different types of activities ranging from art projects to health projects to social issue projects. I clicked on health projects (because I can teach health) and a list of resources with health related activities came up. Most relevant ones were reference materials then magazine articles.

SIRS Issues Researcher
1. I clicked on the leading issue ADHD (which is a new topic). At the left it gives a little summary of this issue with option of clicking more to continue reading on the topic. Below that are research tools that include topic overview, timeline, global impact, statistics, my analysis and note organizer. In the middle there is a pro/con section that gives a topic question "Are children being overmedicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?Are children being overmedicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?" which relates directly with ADHD and then there are boxes with lines for the pros and the cons. Once clicked on it brings up more information to support the side. On the far left there is also a video clip about medicating kids with ADHD.
2. I clicked on the Health tab in the curriculum pathfinder. This had so much stuff I could use in my classroom!  On the left it has a my course section with categories and then subcategories with links to them. In the middle it has randomly placed research ideas with active links to information on each. On the far left it has videos clips that go with the health topics. This is great stuff! I will be showing the kids how to link to this the next time I have topics like these! I bet their papers will be packed with so much good information they won't have to worry about the page limitations any more!