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.

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.