SIRS

Advanced Challenge

Sirs Discover

 1. I searched "solar system" in the advanced search page.  I selected reading level easy and entered a lexile range from 400 to 800. Of the 8 results only one was useful.  It was called "Mars is more than a Candy Bar".  But it had "solar system" as a descriptor on the results page so I choose that.  The new results all different reading levels,, so I selected "Lexile" and then the results were shown from lowest lexile to highest. We ended up with 3 good articles.

2. A general search using the term "volcano" resulted in 137 images of volcanoes. By clicking on the "science" icon, then selecting "geography/geology", and then selecting "volcanoes" and then finally selecting the "graphics" tab, I ended up with 157 images of volcanoes.


Sirs Issues Researcher

1. I did a general search on "teen suicide" and ended up with 6 website results.  After looking at them only 3 seemed relevant. A Sirs search for "teen sucide prevention" resulted in 0 websites. A Google search on "teen suicide" resulted in several hit or miss sites.  However, a Google search for "teen suicide prevention" resulted in many relevant sites.  I actually liked the Google search better, because it is faster and because it led me to better sites.

2. Selecting "water use" from the Leading Issues list you can get the pros and cons of water conservation. Also searches for "water conservation" or "water supply result in good articles.

Common Core Connections

LIFE SCIENCE STANDARDS
CC9-10RS/TS1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.

HS.SI.1.1 Evaluate resources for reliability. (Reliability can be determined by currency, credibility, authority, etc.  Depending on the curriculum topic)

Students will use Sirs Issues Researcher to find two to four graphs that present inforamation about their global warming topic. Topics could incude carbon monoxide emmissions, deforestation, natural disasters, etc. Once they find the graphs they will compare them and explain if the conclusions drawn from each one is the same or different. They will also analyze the author or crator of each graph.  What are the authors trying to tell you? Are the authors expressing a bias? Was the research conducted for the graph academic or commercial? ETC.