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WHAT'S NEW @ SIRS

Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates to our SIRS family of products were recently completed and we wanted to bring them to your attention.

Current Events

Our editorial team updates our SIRS products every day with new articles and resources. Here's a short list of the timeliest and most topical articles added to your product this month. Publication dates may vary due to the editorial selection process.

SIRS Discoverer Charts and Graphs Feature

Did you know that Discoverer offers charts and graph activities, geared for the younger researcher? Students can learn how to read and decipher charts and graphs. Visit our new Activities category in the Database Features, "charts & graphs." Some examples:

Political Cartoons in Discoverer

Discoverer now offers political cartoons geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Junior Scholastic, Scholastic News, New York Times Upfront and Current Events.

Students can learn how to read and decipher political cartoons, as well as understand the writing devices employed in them (satire, irony, metaphor, etc.). In a hurry? The quickest route to all of our political cartoons is Database Features, Activities, Editorial Cartoons.

Here's just a few timely examples to get you started:

Map Activities in Discoverer

Travel -- with Discoverer! We provide map activities geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Scholastic News, Junior Scholastic and Current Events.

With these new resources, your young students will learn how to read and decipher varied types of maps and answer discussion questions based on their observations. Visit a sampling of the following articles to learn more: 

Suggested Research Topics

Tens of thousands of students mine SIRS resources for the latest information on the leading issues of the day. To provide the most pertinent and safe content, SIRS Editors carefully research topics and issues each day to find age-appropriate materials that bring students to a better understanding of the topics taught in schools and classrooms across the U.S. and Canada.

Be sure to take a peek at some of SIRS Discoverer's most searched topics and issues over the past 60 days, including:

Global Warming
Dogs
Rosa Parks
School Uniforms
Civil War
Harriet Tubman
Presidents
George Washington
Child Labor
Jackie Robinson

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

At the times when the Sun is crossing the celestial equator day and night are of nearly equal length at all latitudes, we call these dates the equinoxes, meaning "equal."

These equinoxes occur this year on March 21 (Vernal Equinox) and then again on September 23 Autumnal Equinox. Since December 22, 2006 (the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year), the Sun has been moving northwards, increasing the amount of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is occurring. For them, March 21 is their Autumnal Equinox.

To the ancient elders, these times, equinoxes, were markers in which seeds would be planted and then harvested.

Activity: Students will be enthusiastic about learning all about the Vernal Equinox and the beginning of spring. Here are some examples of essential questions for critical thinking that teachers can assign to students. Teachers can create additional questions to assign based on these models. These questions ensure that students think about the topic "spring and vernal equinox" as more than a hunt for facts that usually results in essentially the same report by all students.

Students should type vernal equinox in the Keyword/Natural Language Search box.

Questions? Contact INFOhio at webmaster@infohio.org.