ER Challenge: Week 2

SIRS Discoverer
1. Tasmanian Devil - a face only a mother could love, right?
Search yielded 30+ total articles, 21 from magazines, 4 from newspapers
Most articles contained pictures; picture tab from search results bar indicated 8 pictures, some repetition among those, but all are in color and are good up-close photos.
Magazine article editorially-assigned reading levels ranged from easy to challenging with most falling somewhere between the 2 extremes. A re-sort of those articles according to lexile levels from easiest to most difficult revealed lexiles ranging from 660 to 1160.

2a. Went back to Germany again--stuck in a travel rut, I am.
The leveled graphic organizers could be a very useful tool for geography techers at whatever grade level is being taught.
Nice to see phonetic pronunciation guide, printable country map and flag
Handy quick facts organized to be easy to use, especially liked the facts under "Economy"--such current info is usually available but can be hard to uncover
2b. The map of Afghanistan found under the Nations tab could be useful to a teacher of current events, considering the importance of the topic of the war in Afghanistan in the news for the past several weeks/months. Many of the towns whose names appear in newscasts and articles are on that map as are the provinces frequently referred to, i.e., Helmand.
2c. My students frequently looked for pictures so that searchable picture file is a nice feature. During library visits, I've frequently taken school librarians to the Educator's Resources for the explanation of lexile levels, the workbooks for student lessons, and for the SIRS vs. Google chart.

SIRS Issues
1. "Human Trafficking" - Liked the definition of terms on the left side of the overview, i.e. dissidents, ethnic cleansing
Useful timeline for topic accompanied by a world map indicating hot spots in the world for human trafficking
Global Impact and Statistics could be helpful
Students would be fascinated by the Interactive feature on the right, this one about sex slaves. Both interesting and frightening
Pro-Con Issues & Essential Questions good to explore during research, especially early in process
150+ articles, mostly magazine & newspaper, with lexile levels, subject heading links, many available in pdf format, some accompanied by pictures, diagrams, maps, etc. Most, if not all, available in full-text
2. I chose the "Health" tab; a click there brought up several areas of interest under that topic: adolescent health, family health, diet and weight, eating disorders (always a subject of interest for students).
Clicking on eating disorders took me to the discussion of the topic as one of the 10 leading issues at this time. Clicking on sexually transmitted diseases in the word cloud under Research Topics yielded articles related to that topic.
The 2 interactive quizzes on the right side are a nice feature with potential for a health teacher working with students. Yikes! Don't know as much about health as I thought I did.