Discovery Science- DE Streaming

Also part of Discovery Education is Discovery Science. This is only currently available through Heartland (www.aea11.k12.ia.us) under the “resources and research tools”.[You can access it through Iowa AEA online (http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/) but since you have a Heartland AEA online you will be directed to Heartland's extra features, i.e. DE Science.  After you log in, you will have the option of going to DE Streaming (which I featured in the previous blog post) or DE Science. After clicking on DE Science, you will have the option of “elementary” or “middle school”.

Under the Elementary Science you can search: earth science, life science, and physical science. These are broken down into smaller topics with tabs and pictures. In the elementary section when you start to get information there are four levels “learn, explore, demonstrate, and extend.” There are also is a glossary of terms off to the right hand side of the page.

Under the Middle School Science you can search: physical science, life science, earth and space science. In the middle school there are virtual labs, explorations, interactive videos, integrated science simulations and more under the “Interact” tab. Under the “watch” tab are video clips and under the “read” tab are articles. Many of these could be teacher directed or student explored. * For those of you that teach the elements - chemistry or physical science- under the middle school section there is a "feature" with an interactive periodic table.

Discovery Education Streaming- DE Streaming

Discovery Education Streaming [also called DE Streaming or United Streaming]
Many of you are already using DE Streaming to show video clips on particular topics. For those of you that may not be familiar with DE Streaming, this is one of the many resources through Iowa AEA and Heartland AEA (www.aea11.k12.ia.us). Video clips are available on numerous topics. Besides showing the videos in class, these videos can also be a dynamic way for students to research about topics in your class. It is VERY easy to search topics. You can also download videos that you want to use over and over and save them to your computer. If you want a video clip at the last minute, this could be helpful. (There are clips for library and using the library, so you should be able to find almost anything that you want).
The videos that are available range from short (less than 1:00) to full length programs being 30 minutes to 45 minutes and some are even an hour. Many of the full length videos are divided into segments so you can watch a 5-10 minute part instead of the entire full length vide. Some of the videos that are in the 2 minute- 4 minute range are great for giving brief explanations on topics. One of the advantages of DE streaming is that you can pause and restart the video. If you are asking students to take notes from the video clip, if all students have a laptop, or are working in one of the computer labs, all students can work at their own pace. When they need to pause to take notes, or write something down, they can. [On a side note, having all students trying to access the same video can really slow down the down loading/ buffering of the video. If you have multiple videos that students are supposed to watch and have students start with different videos, it helps with the speed of downloading of videos].

SIRS Researcher

In a previous post, I did highlight the use of SIRS researcher as a tool for major research topics, in particular research papers. I compared this to the new “Point of View” that was added to EBSCOhost this year. This can be accessed through AEA11 www.aea11.k12.ia.us under the resources area. It also can be accessed through Iowa AEA online www.iowaaeaonline.org.

Last time I blogged about this resource I mentioned that SIRS can help in the development of a thesis topic in addition to providing pro/con articles to give both sides of an argument.

When you first get to the information on a specific topic there is a Yes/No box. There are links to articles showing support and opposition of this controversial topic. There are also research tools to the side including: Timeline, Global impact, Statistics, Research guides and note taker. The Timeline, Global impact, and Statistics tools can be helpful in gathering information for the information, project, or report. The research guides and note taking tools are helpful in the organization of material. Below these aids are the list of articles and additional information.

Additionally, SIRS like EBSCO and Worldbook allow students to email any articles. SIRS also has the read aloud feature that many of the other AEA resources also have.

EBSCO host 2

 EBSCO is a great resource compiling mostly periodicals (newspapers and magazines).

When logging in to EBSCO from AEA’s website (www.aea11.k12.ia.us) and after you log into EBSCO using our school’s user name and password, you will have a number of different databases that are a part of EBSCO. one option that you have is EBSCO 6-12 search history. When you click on this link, there are a number of options and different types of searches you can do. Some of these I have already highlighted or discussed briefly. Some of these other searches I will identify how they might be helpful in what you may be doing in the classroom. The more specialized searches include:

Professional Development Collection, ERIC, MAS Ultra: School Edition, Newspaper Source, Middle Search Plus, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, Primary Search, Academic Search Elite, Business Source Elite, Master File Premier, Topic Search, Health Source: Nursing/ Academic Edition, Vocational and Career Edition, Health Source: Consumer Edition, Regional Business Edition, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Teacher Reference Center, Advanced Placement Source, Literary Reference Center, Newspaper Source Plus, History Reference Center, Science Reference Center.

Below each of these links for a search is a brief description about each search and item that are included as part of the search.

EBSCO host

EBSCO is a great resource compiling mostly periodicals (newspapers and magazines). Other resources I have highlighted that are part of Ebsco are: Kids Search, Student Research Center, Searchasaurus, Literary Reference and Points of View.
Besides the general Ebsco search, there are more specialized searching for certain topics and content areas, targeted especially for high school students. Some of these more specialized searches include: “Advance Placement Source,” “ History Reference Center,” “Newspaper Source Plus,” “Science Reference Center,” and plain “EBSCO”. There are links for each of theses through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.”
All of these searches (General EBSCO and all specialized searches) are also available through Iowa AEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/ and selecting EBSCO as well. After logging in with the user name and password scroll down and you will see links for these specialized resources that are a part of EBSCO. While you can search the general EBSCO and get the same articles, it helps in providing an ease in the search for a particular topic in the subject area.
In searching any of these you can type in a key word in the search box or use some of the advanced search option to include multiple words or the type of article you might be looking for.
Ebsco, can be effective if you are including current events or news articles as a part of your classes. Additionally if you are requiring students to do research on a topic, this can be a place for them to get information from reliable sources.

Kid’s Search, Student Research Center and Searchasaurus

This resource is also available through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.” You will need to go through EBSCO to access them. While you can get to this through AEA you also can use EBSCO to get to this as well which is linked through Iowa AEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/ and selecting EBSCO as well.
What is it: This helps to find articles and information on topics students might be researching. This searches current newspapers, magazines, books and encyclopedias, animals, biographies, radio and news transcripts, state and province reports, primary source documents, and photos.
A student can search and have all the results or limit the results by clicking on the type of information they want (i.e. just magazines or newspapers). Additionally when students get their list of results on the left they also can narrow their topic down. For example with “Volcanoes” it gave options for “United States” and “Volcanic eruptions.”
One advantage of the magazines is the inclusion of the Lexile scores which helps to give the reading level and difficulty of the text. This way if students do know their lexile range, they can look at an article and know it’s difficulty prior to even opening the article. Reading level is also sometimes included for the state reports. The photo option when selected individually, will give a thumbnail of the photo if it is available. Lastly there is an additional encyclopedia and dictionary that students can search for information. This can be a great addition to Encyclopedia articles that students might find through Worldbook. Searchasaurus - K-5 (left)
Kids Search 6-8 (pictured above) Student reseach center 6-12 (right)

Novelist k-8 plus and Novelist plus

This resource is also available through AEA 11 http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ under the “Resources and Research Tools.” While you can get to this through AEA you also can use EBSCO to get to this as well which is linked through Iowa AEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/
What is it: This is a great source when looking for titles of books. It searches both fiction and nonfiction. It additionally provides information on the books. Novelist k-8 is for elementary and middle school while Novelist plus is for middle and high school.
At the top you can do a basic search typing in the title, author, or subject. If it is something that it recognizes, it may prompt you underneath trying to finish what you are typing. On the left hand side there are other searches you can do. These are some of the topics under Browse: Award winners, author biographies, book talks, recommended books, book discussion guides, and curricular connections.
It also allows you to do more advanced searches and search for “alike” books by reading level or genre. Additionally it also allows you to focus on a target audience. You also can focus on fiction or nonfiction.
You can also get additional information on a particular book result that you get in a search including subjects/themes that are covered, a short summary, awards the book has won, book reviews, author websites, and other recommended reads.

Points of View Reference

This resource is also available through AEA (http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ ) under the “Resources and Research tools.” As always use the AEA username and password.
Points of view reference is part of Ebscohost [this is the main database for newspapers and magazines].
After you log in you will be prompted to click on the points of view search.
Search capability: You can do a tree search by the listed topics or areas that are listed. You also can type in the categories and topics in the search box. The topics are listed by “browse by category” and “view all topics”
If you click on the topic in the “view category” you can then narrow down your topic.
Students will then be presented with articles. Specifically they will be presented with articles from the books “points of view” that are specifically designed to present opposing view points of current controversial topics. Students can also click on the tabs for periodicals, newspaper, radio or news transcripts, primary documents, books, biographies, images, and videos.
Additionally if you click on the article, it will offer that point of view and off to the right it will include a link to the counterpoint article (which should already be included in the other list of articles under the points of view tab).
There are also numerous research guides of how to write a research paper, how do an oral report, debate, create a bibliography and more.
This resource is comparable to and would compliment SIRS issue researcher which is offered as a part of Iowa AEA online (and can be found on the list of resource on Heartland AEA’s website). In doing a search for “endangered animals” both have a wealth of information. Both provide newspaper and magazine articles for research on speech or paper topics. They help students to include the counterpoint and multiple arguments for a topic. SIRS at this point seems to possibly have more topics, but if you have a topic that is found on both, the combination of these two resources together can help students with presenting both sides of a topic in a paper. Additionally SIRS seems to try to form a thesis more for students that a student could argue in favor for or against. Points of view does not offer a thesis but simply compiles the articles for the students.

AEA resources

I know that I talk about these every year first becasue it is an ovbious choice but they have wonderful informaiton and are easy to use. The online resources that are available are all free for you to use. You can go to the IowaAEA online http://www.iowaaeaonline.org/ to go to the

website. You also can go to AEA11's webpage http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/ and click on the "Resource and Research Tools." Then you can choose from the wide array of online resources.
Some of these are geared toward lower elementray students to use, others are for middle school or HS. Some of these are targeted at teachers to be aids in the classroom instruction. Others can be used by any student at any level.
There are many reasons that I push these resources so much. First: They are FREE!!! As educators there are only limited things that are free and to find good things that are free is even harder. Second: These are resources with great information. Some of these are selected by other educators and even added to and modified by educators. The information that is available is often more accurate and reliable. We as teachers that belong to one of the largest AEAs that provide all of these resources should feel privelaged. Not all AEA's provide all of these resources. Please take advantage and use these resources. While I have a link set up for the IowaAEA set up on the library web page, there are additional resources that are only availble through our AEA. For these you need to go through AEA 11's website.
For all of these resources, you will be asked to log in. You will need to enter your specific school username and the password provided by the AEA. Please come and see me if you have any questions about what your username or password may be.