Thing 9: Research Databases

I will be honest - this lesson wasn't my favorite. I explored the different databases and did not find them to be user friendly. In working with second grade students with special needs, using a simple Google search tool is far easier than the searching that is required for many of these databases. Many topics that I searched garnered zero results, which was frustrating. I found Novel NY to provide more information than other sites, but it still wasn't easy to use. Across platforms I continued to receive zero search results for "tigers," "sharks," and "animals". Under NovelNY I did find the Kids InfoBits page, which I did like. I particularly liked the annotation tools on the side. Being able to highlight the text, print, and even send information directly to your Google Drive is a great feature! I also like that if students were working together on a group project they could use the "share to group" feature. This would be a nice way to teach students to curate information to be shared with one another. This is a tool I would love to share with my kids as we begin our next research topic.


InfoBits