February-March 2010
SIRS Discoverer & eLibrary Elementary: What's New?
Greetings from ProQuest. This month's update email newsletter is designed to be a quick read, filled with short bits of information to fill you in on what's new with a minimum of clutter.
As always, don't miss our full set of support resources for your subscriptions at proquestk12.com, free webinars, lesson-rich newsletters, videos, and more.
Content Updates @ Your Subscription
Our product development team constantly reviews customer feedback and makes changes to this pair of online resources. Click a product icon to access full details of the latest content releases:
Haiti: CultureGrams in Focus
CultureGrams is here to researchers learn more about Haiti.
What is it like to live in this country? What unique challenges lie ahead as its populace recovers from the recent series of earthquakes?
View our full 2010 Haiti country report (PDF open access) then watch a short slideshow of "Haiti Before the Quake."
Lessons: Chinese Calendar, Zodiac, New Year
The Chinese Lunar New Year is the longest chronological record in history, dating from 2600 BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly one, with the start of the lunar year being based on the cycles of the moon. Therefore, because of this cyclical dating, the beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. This year it falls on February 14th. A complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.
Assign students to use SIRS Discoverer to answer these essential questions:
- What is the Chinese Zodiac and how is it useful to the Chinese?
- How is the Chinese calendar related to the movements of the sun and the moon?
- How is the Chinese calendar different than the western calendar used in the U.S.?
- What does the year of the Tiger symbolize to persons born under that sign?
This activity includes examples of essential questions for critical thinking that you can use to guide your students to think critically about the topic. Tap into our hands-on instructions for copying this BookCart learning activity into your local collection for students to use.
Current Events, Political Cartoons, Maps & More
Every day, our editorial team updates SIRS Discoverer with new articles and resources.
Below is a short list of the timeliest and most topical articles added to your product in recent weeks.
Promote your library with a PDF poster that invites users to
"Live. Learn. Laugh. Love. Your Library."
The new 2010 ProQuest K-12 catalog (PDF) is available!
Hands-on Research Activities—Spotlights & Challenge Quests
A commemoration of the historical, cultural, and contemporary roles of African Americans, Black History Month aspires to educate the nation on topics significant to the African-American experience.
SIRS Discover and SIRS Knowledge Source profile renowned African Americans of both past and present and reflect on African-American history and culture in this month's Spotlight of the Month.
The Boy Scouts was founded by American businessman William Boyce on February 8, 1910, and celebrates its centennial in 2010.
SIRS asks: How did Boy Scouts contribute to the war effort during World War I?
Each month, our SIRS team scours the Internet for top-quality websites for classrooms and libraries. Dive into this month's selections: Historical Earthquakes, King Center, Love & Romance.
Grab this funding feed for your webpage!
