SIRS Discoverer

1. When researching armadillos with the SIRS discoverer I was very impressed with the amount of information that came up.  Quite a few pictures, lots of magazine articles, newspaper articles and even reference sources.  Each researched topic has different reading levels for the different articles, and some articles even had materials and activities for kids to do that work on reading comprehension, math, and science.

2. "Database Features"

I was amazed at the amount of countries available in Country Facts. I again researched China and had a picture of their flag, and a map of China along with the population, history & government and weather. Country Facts also provides graphic organizers to help students organize the information they have read.

Maps of the World to me would be geographical maps, but this has maps on everything from slavery to animal habitats.  I was neat to compare the maps from current times to the past in every aspect. This was one of my favorites because I am a very visual learner and this database is just that!

For my last feature I chose Science Fair Explorer and went to the recycling bin and read through the process of recycling and what happens to our old newspapers, bottles, cans, etc.  Again this had great activities to use with the lesson, such as weekly labs, word searches, rebus puzzles, teaches new vocabulary and even has questions to test ones comprehension.  I found it very interesting that is even gives statistics to support the advantages of recycling.