QandANJ "Class Notes"

Scientists - Class Visit

7th and 8th grade students are researching biographies about scientists.
They will be visiting April 8th, 2009 from 11:00 am to 12:30pm EST.

The 7th grade consists of 30 students and will visit from 11:00 to 11:50.

The 8th grade class has 20 students and will visit from 12:00-12:30.

Researchrover: This site has numerous links to biographies on scientists.
http://researchrover.com/biographyscience/

The Multinomah County Library website has many good scientist biography
links.
http://www.multcolib.org/homework/biohc.html#scibio

Posted by Barbara/SJRLC

Resrouces for Class Visit: 3/16

The question is:  *What is the national policy/state statute/local laws about their topic.*

The topics are:

8:20 to 9:00 AM: Teen Alcohol Abuse: 

Westfield has a DARE program: 
http://westfieldnj.govoffice2.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={1326AB9C-FB9C-452E-B175-24B0922E1660}&DE={ECB91073-FE26-4BF1-8CB5-8DE083205906}

Overview of Underage Drinking policy in the U.S. (National Inst of Alcohol Abuse and Alcholism)
http://www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/index.asp?SEC=%7B5AEB2E37-1249-4D49-A1F6-BCC73C2062B7%7D&Type=B_BASIC

National Minimum Drinking Age Act
http://www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/index.asp?SEC={9937ACFC-DB3A-4159-B068-A302CEEE0EDF}&Type=B_BASIC

NCADD—New Jersey's policy to reduce underage drinking
http://www.ncaddnj.org/pdf/UnderageWhitePaperPart2.pdf 

9:00 to 9:40am:  Weapons/Violence/Bullying in Schools:   

NJ Department of Education news regarding a decrease of violence and vandalism at NJ schools. http://www.state.nj.us/njded/news/2006/0727vandv.htm 

U.S. Dept of Education, Ending bullying in schools:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/16/33867604.pdf

NJ Anti-Bully law:
http://www.bullypolice.org/nj_law.html
http://www.njbullying.org/ 

10:30 to 11:12am:  Traffic/Available Parking in Westfield:   

Westfield Parking/traffic FAQ: 
http://www.westfieldnj.gov/index.asp?Type=B_LIST&SEC=%7B159FA63A-9AC9-4DD2-A668-D8CE348F7A00%7D  

Map for the Westfield Central Business District with information on parking: 
http://westfieldnj.com/parking.htm

U.S. DOT Focus on Congestion Relief:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/congestion/index.htm

Travel and Parking behavior in the United States:
http://www.upa.pdx.edu/CUS/publications/docs/DP96-7.pdf

12:00 to 12:45pm: Global Warming:

The US EPA has revamped their website regarding climate change.   Here is an article on this topic: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/68b5f2d54f3eefd28525701500517fbf/42c8e3cd877cfab18525720c004cc133!OpenDocument 

US EPA's new climate change website: 
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange  

Press release from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection:   
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/newsrel/2006/06_0048.htm

White House's Global Warming Policy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/20010611-2.html

Student Research Page on Global Warming:
http://www.globalwarming.org/student.htm

NJ Global Warming Response:
http://www.environmentnewjersey.org/

Article: NJ Proposes Global Warming Response Act
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47138

2:00 to 2:45pm: Illegal Immigration: 

Illegal Immigration is a crime: 
http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/isacrime.html

Overview on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060515-7.html

Immigration Policy in the United States:
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7051/02-28-Immigration.pdf

Gases that make up the Earth's Atmosphere

The following sites are for a high school class visit on November 8, 2006.  The students will need sites that can give them a statistical breakdown (percentage) of the gases in the earth's atmosphere.  They will be creating pie charts illustrating the breakdown.

Atmospheric Composition:  http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7a.html

Earth's Atmosphere:  http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html

NASAs Earth Fact Sheet:  http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html

Posted by Barbara/SJRLC

Science Fairs

I just found out about this great Science Fair site, from posting on Libref-l. Take a look:

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

President's Day

With the approach of Presidents Day, there has been a lot of presidential trivia questions.  I have used the following sites to answer some of the questions.

The American Presidency

This website uses materials from 5 Grolier Encyclopedias to look at the presidents and presidential elections.

American Presidents: Life Portraits

This is a site created for the television series, however it also contains biographical facts, key events of each presidency, presidential places, presidential graves, and reference material.

National Archives and Records Administration

Lots of links to presidential information.

Potus: Presidents of the United States

Find background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. Links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and other presidential sites are also included.

Presidential Factfile from Infoplease

Find everything you’ve wanted to know about United States presidents here.

Presidential Trivia

The strange and unreal from Washington to GW Bush.

PresidentsUSA

Comprehensive list of presidential resources where you can search the site.

US – Presidents from Maps of the World

Find links to presidential trivia, US presidents and vice presidents, and other information.

USATrivia

There are several links here to biographies of the presidents, vice presidents, and first ladies, presidents with mustaches, assassinations and attempts, pets of the presidents, etc.

-Posted by Barbara/SJRLC

Sound familiar?:-)

http://www.overduemedia.com/archive.aspx?strip=20051022

The October 22nd strip really hits home!

Monsters & bats & Dracula. Oh my!

It's that's spooky time of the year again!  We have been receiving some questions, and I'm sure we will be receiving more about Halloween myths & legends, costume ideas, recipes, etc. 

Here are some good sites:

Yahooligans: Halloween:  Even though there are some broken links here, there are still lots of links for costume ideas, recipes, history, stories & poems, Halloween safety, e-cards, clipart, pumpkin carving, etc.

The Halloween Costume Page: The Halloween costume page is dedicated to helping you come up with the best costumes for Halloween!  If you can't find what you're looking for here, check out the other sites listed at the bottom of the page.  If you are looking for the most comprehensive collection of costuming resources available on the Internet, including links for costume history, ethnic costume, theatrical costuming, and costume organizations and events, go directly to the Costume Page.

Halloween Online: From Halloween costumes to pumpkin carving, to Halloween decorations, this site has several links to help make your Halloween celebration as fun and frightful as possible.

FamilyCorner.com:  There are lots of easy, creative costume ideas here.

Please add your favorite Halloween sites!

Posted by Barbara/SJRLC

New Orleans...

Hi Colleagues,
We have been receiving the following questions about New Orleans:  What presidents in history were concerned about New Orleans?  For what reasons were they concerned about the city?  What did they do about their concerns?  What was the impact of their decisions and actions?

What factors make New Orleans so critical to the United States?

Here are some sites that have been pushed:

Louisiana.gov: Louisiana History
Encyclopedia Louisiana: Louisiana Timeline
Wikipedia Encyclopedia:  New Orleans, Louisiana

These sites don't really answer the first part of the question about the presidents so I posed the question to Ask Gleaves at The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.  I am still waiting for a response.

There is a lot of information on Bush and Katrina but students have replied that that is not what they are looking for.  They need presidents in history.

I thought presidential trivia sites like Presidential Trivia at Infoplease, Presidential Trivia from the Detroit Free Press, and Who Knew?  US Presidential Trivia from National Geographic would be helpful but I only found information about Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.

Has anyone found any sites that completely answer the above questions?  Thanks!

Posted by Barbara/SJRLC

Math Help

With the closure of homework help, we have been handling many math related questions.  Here are some useful sights: 

Ask Dr. Math - This is an archive of K-12 student mathematical questions and answers. It is searchable both by a Table of Contents and by keyword. 

Webmath.com - Webmath not only solves your math problems, it shows the steps taken to reach the solution.  Categories include:  math for everyone, general math, k-8 math, algebra, plots & geometry, trig  & calculus, and other stuff.

Math Homework Helper-Fact Monster Homework Center: Math - Great math help for elementary and middle school students from Fact Monster.

The Math Page - Complete courses are available for basic arithmetic and algebra.  Topics are available for trigonometry and pre-calculus.

Math2.org (Formerly Dave's Math Tables) - Contains numerous links to mathematical tables for various subjects: general math, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and advanced topics such as fourier series and transforms.  It provides formulas, diagrams and proofs which are all very useful in mathematics.

Interactive Mathematics On-line - This site takes you step by step through topics such as algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and even chaos theory and Java.  There are also links to related sites.

Purplemath-Your Algebra Resource - The lessons here give pratical tips, hints, examples, and point out common mistakes.  They are cross-referenced to each other, to help you find related material.  Includes preliminary topics, beginning, intermediate, and advanced topics, solving word problems and an appendix.

Trigonometry Help - Basic help and tutorials for trigonometry, as well as articles about trigonometry and links to other trigonometry-related sites.

Posted by Barbara/SJRLC

Algebra Help - This site offers calculators and explanations to help you with basic and not so basic algebra problems.

Ancient Egypt

It's happening in my library so I assume it will be spreading across the state - the ANCIENT EGYPT ASSIGNMENT. We've already had one parent trying to clean us out of all our books. Here are some great sites to push:

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html    - This is a beautiful as well as informative site.

http://www.ancient-egypt.org/                       - Full of information and easy to read

http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmnh/exhibits/egypt/  - Daily life in Ancient Egypt

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/index.shtml  - another site with daily life as well as cultre, religion & military information

http://www.discoveringegypt.com/   - pyramids & royalty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/ - A busy site but chock full of "stuff"

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/  - Just what its name says - history for kids

Of course there are hundreds of other sites but these give you and your customers a good, solid start to the subject.

posted by sjpober