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Social Studies 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?

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. In addition the various databases contain a wide range of information in the form of maps, charts, still and video images.

What are the links to the curriculum?

The Process and Skills and Applications of Social Studies curriculum organizers provide students with a framework of developmental skills and processes that are used throughout the curriculum. These outcomes are not intended to be taught in isolation, but rather should be integrated in context with the four content focused curriculum organizers.

Processes and Skills

• Grades K – 4
• Grades 5 – 7
• Grade 10
• Grade 11

Applications of Social Studies

• Grades 8
• Grades 9

All 3 online resources, EBSCOhost, Word Book and Encyclopedia of BC have primary and secondary resources that support the BC Curriculum.

What's available for Elementary students?

• Primary Sources
  
  

  1. World Book Advanced – once your search has taken you to an article page you will see a list of Primary Sources that are available relating to your topic.

     • For example a search for Ancient Egypt has a link to the translation of the Rosetta Stone and a search for Christopher Columbus has a link to a letter from Columbus describing his first voyage



• Secondary Sources
  
  
  1. 
     
     
     

  2. World book Student – use the Biography Centre for information on explorers, inventors and other people of significance to the culture that you are studying

     • For example a search on Ramses yields a short article with a link to a picture of Abu Simbel and a video on the Valley of the Kings

     Use the Timelines link on the Home Page to view and create timelines related to your area of research, Atlas, text articles and images

  3. Encyclopedia of British Columbia – for materials relating to the First Nations peoples and the history of British Columbia

     • A Search for “Gold Rush” yields several articles including ones on the people and places associated with the various BC rushes. The individual articles have links to images and external websites related to the topic.

  
  
  
  

  For elementary students, there are many useful magazines and resources that would be very valuable in your social studies lessons. From great titles like: Canada & the World, Current Events, National Geographic Kids, National Geographic World, to Ranger Rick, there are a lot of options available in this current, up to date database. CPI.Q. does not have a different interface for younger students, so they may need some help in order to find and view these resources.

What's available for Secondary students?

• Primary Sources
  
  Here are some examples of primary source documents.
  
  

  1. World Book Advanced:

     • An article on the Black Death that includes the writing of Giovanni Boccaccio

     • The American declaration of war against Japan

  2. EBSCOhost Research Databases:

     • MasterFILE Premier - A search for "Canadian Constitution" and "Canada Constitution" yields Historical photographs from 1981 and 1982 when the new Constitution was being discussed and signed.

     • Middle Search Plus - A search for I have a Dream yields Dr. Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech

     • Canadian Student Research Centre –a basic search when limited to Primary Source documents yields Voyages by Samuel de Champlain – an article that details the history of explorers seeking a northwest passage to the Orient. This article links to an article written by Christopher Columbus Discovery of the New World

  3. CPI.Q.:
     
     CPI.Q. is a database that is aimed very much at Secondary students and can be invaluable to them in studying Social Studies, History, or any current events topic. The ability to mine thousands of newspapers, periodicals, journals and magazines from across Canada, and view the entire text, with images, multimedia and citation help can be an excellent tool for any Social Studies teacher. Allowing your students to access this database and search their topic for related articles is a great chance to expose them to these new information resources. Almost every major newspaper from across this country is included and is updated every day that news is generated. For example, the Globe & Mail, Vancouver Sun, and all BC regional newspapers are carried inside this database with all their content available for free to your students. Also available are photographs, images, audio recordings and video clips.



• Secondary Sources
  

  The following sources can be accessed for historical research, biographies, current events, background information on current events, geographical information, general reference and periodicals.

  1. World Book Student - Biography Centre, Atlas
     
     

     • You can locate biographies by category or use "view more categories" to enter your own search
     
     
     • A search for Egyptian gods provides a list of Egyptian deities including some Pharaohs
     
     
     • When you click on any continent on the World map you will be taken to a map of that area – the sidebar displays available alternate views
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  2. World Book Advanced
     
     
     • The "in the Headlines" area on the World Book Advanced home page displays 3 or 4 of the most current news headlines.
     
     
     • Click on any one of the articles to enter the Reuters homepage. Use the search box in the top right corner to search for articles on other topics. A search for Afghanistan yields a results page that offers News articles, Videos, Pictures and Web links on the topic.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

  3. EBSCOhost Research Databases:

  • Canadian Reference Centre – a full text Advanced search on the Canadian Constitution yields several articles related to the Constitution both recent, It’s the Charter, Stupid from Maclean’s in 2006 and written at the time of the Constitutional Reform in 1982, A Mathematician's Gamble from the National Review in 1980.

  • Canadian Student Research Centre - Includes both Canadian and International Research Material – a basic search on Middle Ages Crusades yields information that includes a timeline of the crusades.

  4. CPI.Q.:
     
     CPI.Q. has just as many Secondary Sources as well as Primary sources in the form of Magazine articles and also Academic journals. These resources can be very useful for your secondary students to help frame and organize their research. Reading other's thoughts and interpretations of events and news can help them decipher and decode the full picture. Some examples of great secondary sources in this database are: Maclean's, Adbusters, Behind the Headlines, Harper's Magazine and the New Yorker.

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 7: A Multicultural Celebration	Critical Question: You have been whisked back in time where you find yourself responsible for organizing a Multicultural fair that will showcase your cultures and traditions as well as those of 2 of your neighbouring civilizations. What 3 aspects would best represent your cultures?
Grade 8: Innovation in the Middle Ages	Critical Question: By the end of the Middle Ages a stable society had developed, laying the foundation for a new civilization. What was the most important innovation, during this time period, that contributed to developing a stable society?

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