Lesson 3

SIRS Discover
1.  I searched for resources about an octopus.  At first, I was slightly disappointed because the news articles did not include pictures and looked somewhat un-interesting for elementary students who like bright colors, pictures, etc.  However, then I realized that there was a picture tab which had 25 pictures of interesting looking octopuses including the zebra striped ones, blue-dotted ones and lots more.  I think young learners would definitely enjoy this.  It was nice being able to pick from a variety of magazine articles without filtering through a pile of wiki-space sources and random things found on google.  The reading level would not be functional for early elementary however by the middle grades, most students should be able to find that most resources are within their ability in my opinion.  However, with very little training, students will be able to pick up on what color they should look for in order to match up with their reading level.  This is an excellent 'tool' in making this resources more efficient for teachers and learners.  This feature makes this resource even more user friendly.
2.  When I went to the Country Facts link I was suprised at how many relatively unknown countries were listed.  For the fun of it, I looked up Nauru- a country I had never heard of before.  Because I had no idea where it was, I went back to the Maps link and learned that it is a tiny island just over 3 miles long, with an air strip and a phosphate mine on a little plateau in the center of the island.  13,000 people live there and they have a GDP of $5,000 per person.  Their president Marcus Stephens leads the country.  Although this is an unknown country, this resource still had a very complete set of information irregardless of its lack of presence on the world stage so to speak.
 Lastly, I used the biography feature to do some searching.  I realize that this is not a complete list however, what is available and what isn't available was interesting to me.  My husband recently read a book on William Wilberforce- a great man who worked for 15 years to end the African slave ship trade.  This was a major social, cultural and racial accomplishment.  He played a very key role in transforming society.  He does not have a biography listed.  I looked up Billy Graham- nothing listed.  I looked up Martin Luther- nothing listed.  I looked up Pope Benedict- biography listed, I looked up Jesus- nothing listed, I looked up Buddha- info listed.  Martin Luther King- much listed.  I guess, I found it very interesting as to what was included in this datebase and what wasn't.  From the standpoint of a very quick assessment, it appears that there are some irregularities in what content is included and what isn't.  Because of its incompleteness, I think I will utilize other resources than this biography feature unfortunately.  If a student was assigned to write a paper on his/her hero- it appears that some valid biographies are missing from this database.
SIRS Researcher
I researched the topic of adoption.  I found many articles related to a variety of topics and factors related to adoption.  Many of them focused on the changes in international adoption regarding regulations, corruption and Hague Accredidation.  The timeline is very useful- this provides a very broad perspective of the content in a very quick and efficient way.  I really liked the graphs/charts that come up along the top- it makes it very quick and handy to find and use.  These would be wonderful for power point presentations or as discussion starters for my Child Development and/or Family Sociology classes.  I will be pointing my students here the next time they do an Illustrated Talk on a social issue related to families.  I also think that many kids would like the 'visual browse' feature in which they can float through their research in a very fun way.  The Curriculum Pathfinder feature has a very large selection.  I clicked on the health tab and then the nutrition heading.  I was pleased to find many magazine articles and much information there.  These would be very useful for independent reading time at the beginnig of a class hour or after taking a test when time-fillers are needed.  These articles could also be used for discussion and/or debate starting points.