Back to School Update: SIRS Discoverer Equips Beginning Researchers

The new 2018-2019 school year has begun! We have a bunch of resources for your students' learning and research. Before you assign your next project, be sure to check out the new and updated offerings* curated by our editors!

Argument Writing and Debate: Pro/Con Leading Issues

The Leading Issues collection has expanded to 67 topics! Pro/Con Leading Issues is designed to develop the critical thinking skills of students in upper elementary and middle schools grades. Each issue contains a framework for your students to analyze an issue and its viewpoints with an overview, vocabulary terms, essential question, viewpoint articles, an editorial cartoon, and critical thinking questions. New Pro/Con Leading Issues: Concussions in Sports, Marijuana Legalization, Opioids, Recycling, School Shootings, Teen Employment, and Women's Rights

Teaching Tip: Have students answer the visual literacy and critical thinking questions for a particular issue then compare their answers in a group.

Beginning Research Project: Animal Facts

Our collection has expanded to 310 animals! Animal Facts helps young learners with easy-to-understand content in support of their first research project. Each fact page includes the scientific name, key facts, photos, and links to dig deeper. New Animals: Goat, Harbor Seal, Hare, Horse, Mouse, Pig, Rabbit, Rat, Sheep, and Shrimp

Teaching Tip: Have your students compare and contrast the characteristics of two of their favorite animals using our Animal Comparison graphic organizer.

Reference Collection: Nonfiction Books

Our Nonfiction Books library now houses 569 books! Do you need to bulk up your nonfiction collection? Let us help! View the visually-stunning PDFs on a tablet for individual reading or display a highly-visual book from publishers such as DK and Rourke Publishing on an overhead projector to engage students during a lesson.

New Books from Rourke publishing:

Seeing Both Sides: Pink Toys, Yes or No Seeing Both Sides: Recycling, Yes or No Seeing Both Sides: Video Games, Yes or No STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Forensics STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Game Development STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Marketing STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Photography STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Robotics STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Social Media STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Space Exploration STEAM Jobs You'll Love: STEAM Jobs in Wildlife Conservation

Teaching Tip: Use a nonfiction book from Rourke's STEM series to teach science and help with literacy. See the new STEAM Jobs You'll Love series to encourage career aspirations.

Other Features & Updates

• Articles and Graphics: 3,214 new hand-selected articles and graphics
• Country Facts: 264 Country, State, and Canada Facts updated yearly
• Current Events: news-oriented content updated daily
• Spotlight On: updated monthly which features spotlight topic, visual literacy quiz, editorial cartoon activity, and curriculum calendar
• Language Tools: to help with comprehension and language differences, there is text-to-speech and language translation at the article level
• Workflow Tools: each article features Google Drive/Classroom integration, citations, export to Easybib, and email option

And don't forget Educators' Resources with student tutorials, classroom activities, standards correlations, and more!

*New and updated offerings were made from September 2017 to August 2018. 

Check out our new product catalog! Don't have ProQuest? Set up a trial today.