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Science Toolkit

What are the links to the curriculum?
What's available for Elementary students?
What's available for Secondary students?
What are some sample lesson plans?
What are some specific journals and magazines?

The databases provide access to a variety of very current resources including pamphlets, monographs, government documents and primary source materials otherwise not readily available in public school libraries. Whether you are looking for the latest info on string theory, or simply pictures of the life cycle of salmon, or want to read the latest full text issue from Scholastic Superscience, the databases provide a plethora of useful resources for teaching and learning science.

What are the links to the curriculum?

• Science K – 7
• Science 8
• Science 9
• Science 10
• Applications of Physics 11–12
• Biology 11-12
• Physics 11-12
• Chemistry 11-12
• Earth Sciences 11-12
• Sustainable Resources 11-12

All 3 online resources, EBSCOhost, Word Book and Encyclopedia of BC have primary and secondary source documents that support the BC Curriculum. Primary sources include things like research papers, and technical reports from governmental agencies. Secondary sources are more general works that interpret and analyze primary sources.

What is available for Elementary students?

• Primary Sources
  
  
  1. World Book Advanced - the E-book Centre provides access to full text copies of many literary works and would be the most useful to an elementary classroom. Try a search for Mars and you will locate several fiction works on Mars – excerpts from Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs might make an interesting read-aloud and prompt an interesting discussion of show and why our views have changed
  
  
  
  
  
  2. CPI.Q. - In CPI.Q., there are a many Science related periodicals aimed just at elementary use. These magazines are designed for this age range, with specific articles, reading levels and topics geared toward the elementary science curriculum. By doing a publication search based on children's level, you can see that such good resources as Current Science, A Weekly Reader Publication, National Geographic Kids, and National Geographic World. Any of these Magazines will be full of interesting articles for your students to learn more about current Science events and issues.



• Secondary Sources
  
  
  1. Encyclopedia of BC - has material relating to BC’s natural resources . A search for Mining yields the text article, images, a chart showing production figures, a map showing operating mines in BC and links to other mining related websites
  
  
  
  2. World Book Kids - is the source for easily read articles on any number of topics for students in Kindergarten to Grade 5. Many of the articles include pictures, maps, and links to websites as well as the text articles. A search for weather opens an article that includes a weather map and provides links to other related sites such as Weather Whiz Kids where students can learn more about Weather
  
  
  
  3. World Book Student - contains text and graphical materials including: video, and access to on-line articles through the World Book featured sites link. For example a keyword search for Mars leads to a results page that has links to images and brief narrated video "flyover" of the surface of Mars. Related external websites are also given.
  
  
  
  4. EBSCOhost - In Consumer Health Complete , you will be able to find images and diagrams that could be used during a study of Body Systems
     
     
     • Click on the Images and Diagrams button on the main page and then enter your search term – Heart – the first 3 results are colour diagrams of the heart that can be printed or saved for future use. Click here to view.
       
  
  
  
  5. Among the many resources collected by CPI.Q., there are secondary sources that examine current issues relating to the science curriculum. These can be newspaper articles, magazine articles, books, and multimedia. Doing a simple keyword search, and then narrowing your results based on publication title, can help you zero in on the most appropriate materials for your students to learn more about their science topics.
  
  

What is available for Secondary students?

• Primary Sources
  
  
  1. World Book Advanced - Primary source documents and E-books A search for information on the planet Uranus leads a list of related articles as well as a link the original document "The discovery of Uranus" by William Herschel.
     
     A search for information on Leonardo da Vinci provides an article that includes an image of his design for a flying machine as well as link to The Early history of Flight by Alexander Graham bell and others.
  
  
  
  2. EBSCOhost – MasterFILE Premier
     
     
     • A search for Einstein in this database leads to his letter of 1939 where he writes of the possibility of setting up a nuclear chain reaction in uranium which could lead to the development of bombs.
     
     
     • Check the periodical called Science Statistics by Statistics Canada. There are full text articles from 2002. To find a single publication or journal, please go to the Basics Toolkit.
  
  
  
  3. CPI.Q. is packed full of primary sources for Secondary Science Students. Newspapers and Periodicals grant your students access to current, up-to-date information that they can use to search all of Canada's news resources looking for information related to their topic. Almost all of the major Journals and Magazines that students would access using other products can be easily found using CPI.Q.. Journals such as Nature, New Scientist, Canadian Medical Association Journal, and Geoscience Canada are all fully indexed with full-text articles for your students to use.
  
  


• Secondary Sources
  
  
  1. World Book Student and Advanced– has text and graphic materials including video and access to on-line articles through World Book’s featured sites link. For example, there is a hyperlinked periodic table that gives information on each element:
     
     
     
     
     
  
  
  2. EBSCOhost - A search for "early hominids" leads us to an article from Scientific American entitled "out of Africa again…and again?". (Article #30)
  
  
  
  3. CPI.Q. also has many electronic resources that examine Science related topics and issues from a more general perspective. These secondary sources, offering commentary, analysis, and evaluation can be excellent tools for your students to understand the bigger picture of a topic or issue. Doing a subject guide search and narrowing your results based on further subdivisions of keywords can help you immensely when drilling down into the results to find the most appropriate secondary source for your students to use.

What are some sample lesson plans?

These lesson plans are based on the Research Quest model, developed by the BC Teacher-librarians’ Association. This model builds information literacy and critical thinking skills and includes the following stages:

• Focus
• Find and Filter
• Work with the Information
• Communicate
• Reflect
• Teacher Notes

For more information on the Research Quest Model and how to integrate into the classroom, go to pages 11-16 of the Getting Started with Integrating ICT: A Guide for Teachers (PDF 6 MB).

Use these sample lessons as templates to help develop your own lessons:

Grade 3: Stars and Planets	Critical Question: Earth is becoming overcrowded and you have been given the task of choosing a new home in our Solar System. Where would be the best place to live?
Grade 9: Space, Technology and Research	Critical Question: Space exploration is possible due to developments in science and technology. Of the range of instruments and discoveries related to space exploration which one instrument or discovery has had the most impact?

What are some specific journals and magazines?

Here is a list of just a few of the science specific periodicals for k-12 in EBSCOhost. To search for a specific periodical, please refer to the Basics Toolkit.

• Science Now
• Science Activities
• Canadian Geographic
• Canadian Journal of Physics
• ChickaDEE
• PC World
• Popular Mechanics

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