Mikel Heyward Antonio Williams

Professor Cassie Thelen

Education 370
12/30/2014
Thing 10
1). Evaluate the basic student MeL Educational Databases. Select one of the following pairs of
databases recommended for student research and select a topic to search. Compare/contrast the:
a) appropriateness, b) usability, c) content, and d) credibility of the pair of databases for use
within the classroom. How do these resources support the best practice of "generating and
testing hypotheses"?
Post your reflections to your Digital Portfolio:

e-Library Elementary and Kids InfoBits (Elementary level)

InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition (Middle/High School level)

SIRS Discoverer Deluxe and SIRS Renaissance (Middle/High School level)

I used the InfoTrac Student Edition. I liked this better than the junior edition because it

provided almost twenty-three-million more options as well as being more in depth when
searching for specific topics. Rather than, the junior edition where you got more of a
generalization of what you wanted, due to not having as many articles. I believe they both would
be great resources, but I plan on teaching 7th or 8th grade. I would want to use the student edition
because it gives my students a lot more options and more personalized articles that could
potentially spark their passion as they read through them. The student edition heavily supports
the generating and testing of hypotheses by forcing the reader to first pick a topic, and read a
couple of articles to dig a little deeper to decipher what they believe is going on. After reading
the articles the next step would be to see if there were any potential contradictions that occurred

between the same subject to see which authors agreed or disagreed and why. I feel like this is a
great topic that will help the students get excited about topics they actually love.
2). Check out one of the resources or databases in MeL that your students might use in your
classroom to do their class work. For example, for their Country reports they might use Culture
Grams and if they are working on Michigan History they might use Mel Michigana or
Michigana (Sabin Collection): Sources in U.S. History Online. Make a list of the databases your
students would find helpful and list them as well as their web address on your Face of Your
Classroom site.
1). http://www.education.com/activity/middle-school/reading/
2). http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
3). http://www.storylineonline.net/
4). http://readtomelv.com/
5). http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/online-storytime-books-toys/379003588/
3). Select two websites from the bogus/hoax list. Critically review the two websites using the
Joyce Valenza criteria at the BASIC (elementary) or ADVANCED (Secondary-CARRDSS) level.
Include a critical evaluation of each web site and their web addresses in your Digital Portfolio.
Example 1: http://www.timetravelfund.com/
Before reading anything about this website it just looks suspicious. The whole point of
this website being created is to start your own fund that will grow in time and when you time
travel to the future it will be worth a lot more. Last time I checked if you wanted to start any type
of fund, trust or financial account you go to the bank or a credit union. Next, the website says

very strategically that there are no guarantees when this will happen, basically meaning giving
your hard earned money to this website is the same thing as driving through the city and
throwing it out the window and expecting it to comeback. I think that this website is ludicrous
and not worth anyones time unless youre looking for pitiful jokes.
Example 2: http://www.fulkerson.org/ancestors/buyanancestor.html
When first observing this website I dont understand how any of it is legal and can be
taken serious. Next, why would anyone in their right mind try to fake their ancestry with a
company that they have never heard of? Especially, when trying to call them you get a
disconnected dial-tone. I believe that whoever created this website was just wasting their time
attempting to make a get rich quick scheme all off of lies and trying to confuse their website
viewers with misinformed information. I cant believe that websites like this exist, but
nevertheless it is a great lesson in teaching students to not believe everything posted on the
internet because anyone can put anything up on the web, just like this website.
4). Using FREE Citation Makers, create citations. Complete a search for an educational topic
using Google Scholar. Select one of the FREE citation makers (Ex: BibMe, LandMark Citation
Machine, etc.) and create a citation for a book or journal/magazine article found in Google
Scholar. Copy and paste the citation into your Digital Portfolio.
X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Grove Press, 1965.
Print.