Fifth grade students at John Glenn Elementary School are drawing their own conclusions!  After receiving research project assignments on particular musical instruments, students were introduced to an internet site sponsored by the New York Philharmonic, the World Book Online database, and to a nearby bookshelf full of related library books.  While all students thoroughly enjoyed exploring the New York Philharmonic Kidszone site and they used the library books to aid them in their research, they discovered that nothing made the same impression as did the World Book Online database!  “It’s all right here, exclaimed one student, and it’s so fast!”

   Locke Hill Elementary students from Ms. Ramirez’s third-grade class used the Gale Databases to research biographies of entrepreneurs. Students quickly learned that using a database to retrieve information is faster, more reliable, and easier to understand than information found using the search toolbar on the Internet. 

   Third graders at Michael Elementary have found the World Book Online and the Britannica Elementary to be great sources of information for their research about the sun and the solar system.  Students researched and used the information they found to make a variety of projects displaying their newly gained knowledge of the sun and the planets.

Mr. Cheatman’s 8th grade English classes at Connally Middle School recently conducted research on current issues in today’s news.  Topics researched were stem cells, cloning, video games vs. exercise, and the role of the media in people’s lives.  After students performed their research they used the information to create a persuasive essay either opposing the issue or supporting it.  Students found numerous articles to support their thesis using the following databases: ProQuest, Gale Databases, and EBSCO.

Jefferson Middle School

Jefferson Middle School faculty were recently invited to dip into a sampling of delicious new ways to integrate district-wide online databases with the NISD curriculum.  Monday, October 8 was a staff development day and in the afternoon Jefferson librarian, Lucy Podmore, held three training sessions in a computer lab. 

Each 45-minute session was designed around a particular grade level curriculum.  Sixth grade teachers were shown an upcoming unit, the Solar System, and how to find information in Facts on File and EBSCOhost databases.  Seventh grade teachers were shown an upcoming unit, Catastrophic Events, and how to find information in Thomson Gale and EBSCOhost databases.  Finally, eighth grade teachers explored Thomson Gale and World Book Online Advanced to find information for their upcoming unit, Weather and the Greenhouse Effect.  All sessions included an activity which introduced the newest database, Visual Thesaurus. 

The Jefferson faculty enjoyed having the time to investigate the databases. They also loved the dips and chips provided for a snack!