Lesson 2a - SIRS Discoverer

1. I searched "armadillo" in the subject heading area and came up with 70 articles about the animal which would be a great start for a student. Most of the articles seemed to be at the moderate level, and most of the links had pictures attached to them. The first few articles that I clicked on had quite a bit of information, and it was arranged nicely so that someone could easily find the place they wanted. Another convenient feature was that citation information was very easy to find, so students would not have to search for it.

2. In "Country Facts," I searched for Madagascar. What came up was a list of the statistics about the country and a timeline of events. There was a picture of the country and its flag. At the very bottom was a link to an article about Madagascar, but I thought it could have been featured more prominently. Another thing that I am sure many teachers would like is the graphic organizers that were right at the top of the page. Next I searched for "Maps of the World." I was really impressed with the U.S. and World Historical maps. There were A LOT of them, and I always think seeing a map makes a topic easier to understand, so I could see social studies teachers getting a lot of use out of those. The other political and physical maps of the world were also nice for someone who needed to learn more about that area of the world. Next, I searched under "Photo Essays." After doing some searching, I was a bit unimpressed. I think there could have more topics as well as more pictures. For being a photo essay, there should be more pictures. However, they do give good information, and the pictures they do provide are helpful for understanding what they are explaining. Here is a picture of "Human Migration Across Eastern Continents."