SSFS Library 5th Grade Pathfinder on Scientists1. Start with a general reference work like an encyclopedia. This will give you basic information about your scientist that will help you with your search:
In addition to our general encyclopedias: Encyclopedia Britannica, the World Book Encyclopedia, World Book online edition , and Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia online, you may also want to try the following volumes:
2. Search the library catalog; browse the stacks. In addition to searching under your scientist's name in the catalog, try his/her area of concentration: physics, chemistry, astronomy, vaccines etc. Once you find a book in the library catalog, you need to write down the call number as the books in the non-fiction and reference sections are arranged by call number in Dewey decimal order. Here are some helpful call numbers you just want to browse through the shelves:
Remember if a call number starts with:
3. Databases and the Internet. To use the library databases, go to the library page (www.ssfs.org/library) of the school website and select either "On Campus" or "Off Campus" under the Digital Resource Tools heading. (If you are off campus you will have to type in "student" for user ID and "ssfs" for password.) Databases have some advantages over searching the whole Internet. The content has been checked by experts, the citation is almost always provided and the search is much more focused - no millions of pages to consider. The best ones to use for this project are the Science Resource Center, Popular Science, and the online encyclopedias. You will find information about modern day scientists in magazine and newspaper articles indexed in Proquest and SIRS Discoverer. Articles and obituaries (a great source of information) can be found in the Historical Newspapers database for people in the news in the United States since the mid-1800's. Ancient scientists may have listings in the Daily Life database. We also have access to a database of biographies through the Montgomery County Public Library. Go to www.montgomerycountymd.gov/library , click on "Research a topic", choose "Biography", and type in what you want to search. It will prompt you for a library card number. Here at school we will have a terminal already logged in for your use or you can ask a librarian for the school library card if you don't have yours. (You can use this database from home, too.) All search engines are not equal. In addition to Google, or instead of it, try ask.com or kids.yahoo.com. When looking on the web for sources you should have multiple search words in mind, particularly if your person is not commonly known. When you find a website, take time to figure out if it is a reliable source - whose website is it? Is it from an educational source? Was it written by an expert, or just a student? Are they trying to sell you something? Don't be tempted to just look on Wikipedia; it's an okay place to start to look for search words and basic information, but your teachers will not accept it as a source. Here is a list of web sites we think you might find helpful. None of these sites will work for everyone, but your subject is likely to be in at least one of them. A Science Odyssey - People and Discoveries Eric Weisstein's World of Science Faces of Science: African-Americans in Science Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics Muslim Heritage - Scholars American Institute of Physics (Check out the Emilio Serge Visual Archives page on this site) Catalog of the Scientific Community in the 16th and 17th Centuries - The Galileo Project 12/07 |
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