Active participation, exploration, research

Active participation, exploration, and research help develop deeper understanding and encourage students to become more independent and engaged in their learning. The following DLC resources support this specific element of powerful teaching.

DLC Library

Facts on File: Issues and Controversies in American History Sign in for access to this resource: Provides primary source documents, encyclopedia articles, and biographies, instantly accessible from in-depth articles. Special features include presidential election coverage, timelines, photographs, statistical charts, explanatory diagrams, maps, and cartoons.

infoSkills: A collection of resources focused on information literacy tools for students, including tools for organizing their thoughts and subject matter, finding resources, formatting research papers, and more.

Facts on File: Tools for Students Sign in for access to this resource: Research tools, including special guides to researching major topics in the news, past and present, and to using findings in assignments.

Facts on File: Tools for Educators Sign in for access to this resource: A variety of creative classroom activities and homework assignments, as well as helpful guides to teaching with the World News Digest.

SIRS: Reference Toolbox Sign in for access to this resource: A collection of resources to help students with their research skills, including guides for research papers, mini-research papers, PowerPoint presentations, and debate outlines.

SIRS: Leading Issues Sign in for access to this resource: Students are guided through the process of investigating controversial issues, using articles from the SIRS database that support both sides of an issue. Students are led to develop their own opinions and support them in a research paper, PowerPoint presentation, or debate outline.

netTrekker d.i.: Famous Person Search/Timeline Sign in for access to this resource: Students can search for notable historical or contemporary figures by selecting from among four sets of criteria. For some of the "hits," a Timeline link provides students with a graphical view of significant events and cultural and scientific developments that occurred in that person's lifetime.

netTrekker d.i.: References Sign in for access to this resource: Links to online reference tools and resources for students, categorized by level (elementary, middle, high) and topic (U.S. Government, Math Assistance, The English Language, etc.).

Grolier: Atlas Sign in for access to this resource: Students start from a global view of the world and drill down to reference articles by clicking on map elements. Searches can be categorized as geopolitical, historical, thematic, exploration, etc.

Librarians' Internet Index: A collection of more than 20,000 websites vetted by professional librarians and organized into 14 main topics and nearly 300 subtopics.

Teaching Resources

ExploreLearning Gizmos: Interactive simulations serve as powerful instructional aides that enable active, hands-on exploration of abstract concepts.