SIRS

SIRS stands for "Social Issues Resources Series."  I searched for Armadillos.Wow! I am loving how everything is organized! There are tabs showing how many articles in different resources (newspaper, magazine, reference, graphics and websites. There are icons that tell me what reading level the articles is, the lexile level and if there's a photo. There is an article summary as well as the date and source.

The Database feature is pretty neat. In the Country facts, there is a list of many countries that you can chose from. The list shows the difficulty of reading and a camera icon if there is a photo. When chosing a country, the article is organized and easy to collect information. Population, Geography and Weather, History and Economy are just some of the topics covered in the article.

The Maps of the World are very cool. I am often involved in conversations where these would be useful. Whether it's where Uncle Keith was in Afghanistan to what's going on in the news to where Auntie Lisa is in Thailand, this resource will be very useful.

The Science Fair Explorer is very handy. There are lots of relatively quick and easy experiments with explanations. I love making everything a learning opportunty (sometimes to my kids' groaning) and this resource will be very useful.

SIRS Issues Researcher is for older students. When looking up leading issues, SIRS gives you an issue overview, pros and cons (as well as examples and links to specifics of each), timeline, global impact and statistics. You can also write your own analysis. There is a link to an organizational tool for note taking.

The Curriculum Pathfinder provides various topics listed under curriculum subjects. Within a sub-topic, there are many articles. I looked under Music to New Age and found an interesting article on Ambient Music. I may have to use the Curriculum Pathfinder in my music class.

I am glad to be taking this challenge and learning MORE about all these resourses available to us.