|
  |
|
|
| |
 |
April 2009
Columbine, EU, Stem Cells + More
Welcome to the new issue of ProQuest Teachable Moments. This month, you'll find 21st century classroom-ready lessons focusing on
stem cell research, the Mercury Seven anniversary, National Poetry Month, the Holocaust, Columbine, NATO, model EU, Alcohol Awareness Month,
and more. (Lesson archives.)
American History Teachable Moment
Late last month, John Hope Franklin, celebrated as "the creator of black history," passed away at his home in North Carolina at the age of 94.
Learn more about Franklin, and watch a short video clip from The HistoryMakers of Franklin discussing his role in researching the landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case in 1953.
|
|
Enter to win this month's book from Linworth Books!
| |
| |
eLibrary
Celebrating the Art of Poetic Expression
eLibrary BookCarts are an excellent tool to guide your students to learn more about poets, poetry, and motivate them to write. We've created many models that you may want to copy and use with your students in the study of poetry, including Homer's Epic Poetry (HS), Investigating Poetic Forms: Sonnets (HS), Power of Poetry (HS), Song Lyrics as Poetry (HS), and Writing Poetry for Fun and Expression (MS).
SIRS Discoverer
Keep America Beautiful in April
The tenth anniversary of the Great American Cleanup in March kicked off a series of environmental preservation and beautification efforts that will occur in April—Earth Day is April 22, Arbor Day is April 24, and April is National Garden Month.
Assign students to select an environmental topic and answer our essential questions: Why did you select this environmental topic? What are some of the problems that need to be solved in the selected environment? What is being done presently that seems to be working to solve these problems, and how can you contribute?
| |
| |
eLibrary Science
Embryonic Stem Cell Research Renewal
In March, President Obama signed an order ending the Bush-era ban on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research.
ProQuest has created a BookCart lesson plan to help your students learn more about stem cell research and bioethics—Stem Cell Research and Bioethics. This and all BookCarts are complete one-stop learning activities (learn more) for your students.
SIRS Decades
Can morality be legislated?
April is Alcohol Awareness Month. Today's problems with alcohol abuse include college students who binge drink at local bars, pregnant women who drink and put their babies at risk for fetal alcohol syndrome, professionals who drink after a long day of work; and senior citizens who drink out of loneliness.
The statement "you can't legislate morality" is often used to oppose government regulation of citizens' private lives. Evaluate the statement's validity with respect to prohibition during the 1920s.
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
SIRS Researcher
Columbine High School Massacre
Ten years ago, on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School near Denver, a massacre occurred. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 23 others.
SIRS Leading Issues addresses a variety of issues that can leverage the Columbine massacre into learning about how to prevent many of the abuses that caused it. Assign student to take a pro or con position on one of the related Leading Issues that follow: Violence in Mass Media; School Violence; Substance Abuse; and Gun Control.
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
ProQuest Platinum
The Mercury Seven
On April 9, 1959, a fledgling NASA announced the selection of the "Mercury Seven" astronauts or "Astronaut Group 1." The Mercury Seven was the first group of astronauts picked from a pool of 89 candidates.
Students: What criteria were used to select the Mercury Seven? What type of training did they receive as astronauts? How does the criteria for selecting astronauts today differ from the past and why? How does astronaut training today differ from the Mercury Seven?
| | |
eLibrary Elementary
Biographies @ April
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Colin Powell, Wilbur Wright, Pope Benedict XVI, Coretta Scott King, and Oscar Schindler. Happy Birthday in April to these famous persons, past and present, that have contributed to our world in a myriad of ways. Their works and discoveries still benefit us today. Assign students a different person from this listing of famous people born in April (or add to it.)
eLibrary Curriculum Edition
Remembering the Holocaust
Even after 60 years, the Holocaust remains real and ever-present to survivors. But, for many others, sixty years makes the Holocaust seem part of ancient history.
ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students remember the Holocaust—"Elie Wiesel's "Night" Book and the Holocaust" (HS) and "Holocaust—History and People." Each Cart is a complete and one-stop learning activity for your students.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Grants for Educators @ Grant Wrangler
Learn how to publish this information on your website(s)
|
| |
Free Online Training Opportunities
Our ProQuest product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription. Tap into this month's free training schedules (by class or date) then register for a course today. (Get dates via email.)
|
 |
|
Top 3 Websites
Each month, our editorial team scours the Internet for top-quality sites for teachers and students.
SIRS Spotlights + Challenge Quests
Earth is a remarkably diverse place, home to more than one million species of plants and animals. A "habitat" is essential to the survival of every living thing on Earth. Each species requires different elements in its habitat to survive.
World Habitat Awareness Month celebrates the myriad habitats that support the world's animals, birds, marine life, and plants.
Congress has appointed a Poet Laureate since 1937. In 2006, Jack Prelutsky was selected as the first Children's Poet Laureate. For two years he visited schools and discussed poetry.
SIRS asks the question: In October 2008, a new Children's Poet Laureate was selected. What is her name?
ProQuest Recorded Video Training:
Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device
In addition to the free, Web-based training courses we offer each
month,
you can also tap into our
recorded training videos.
Available anytime, these 5-75 minute self-paced Flash videos allow users to pause and resume their training anytime.
You may now stream or download our
Library Stimulus How-To Guide,
SIRS The Human Element Animated Video,
New eLibrary Quick Tour +
Smart Content,
and
ProQuest Platform (Gold, Silver, Platinum, etc.) videos.
CultureGrams
Model European Union
April 18 is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1951, the agreement between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany that created the European Coal and Steel Community, the earliest forerunner of the modern 27-nation European Union.
To help students learn more about the European Union, have them participate in a model EU to debate issues facing the organization.
Have the students each bring in at least one news article about an issue facing the EU. The article should deal with new member states, economic policy, or how to govern the EU. Then pick three main topics to debate, with at least one topic being the admission of new member countries.
World Conflicts Today
April in Iraq
Former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld called April 9, 2003 "a very good day." He called April 29, 2004 a "catastrophe." On both occasions, he was basing his judgments on what was happening in the war in Iraq.
Test your knowledge of the war in Iraq and of Iraqi history in a short quiz and then answer one essential question for critical thinking.
Find the correct answers by consulting the World Conflicts Today Iraq report. The answer key is located at the end of the activity page.
Examine all the issues in this WCT activity.
Explore additional history-related themes inside Retroview and History Happenings, our hands-on social studies newsletters.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Happy Birthday NATO
Sixty years ago, on April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created as a military alliance in response to the emerging Cold War threats of the Soviet Union.
- Who were the original members of NATO and contrast that with current membership?
- What were some of the perceived and real threats that helped create NATO?
- What were some of the strategies used by NATO to ensure mutual defense?
- How did the Soviet Union respond to the creation of NATO?
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
© ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. Images © Getty Images, AP
789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI, 48106, United States |
|
|
