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Plymouth Middle School Provides a number of databases on the first tab of their Library/Media Center Web Page.
These can be useful for you to find information on a varriety of topics.
One Topic vibrantly Debated right now is the question of Global Warming. Is "Global Warming Man Made or a Natural Occurrence?"
In order to get more information on this topic we are going to look at a Database that provides articles from several points of view. The Student Research Center.
We want you to look at many points of view and analyze the information you read in order to make up your own mind. Today to do this we will examine two articles. Because of time restraints we will limit this exercize to just two articles.
Let's begin: Go to the http://www.pms.rdale.org website and select the Library Media Center Icon at the bottom of the page or you can go up to the STUDENTS pull down menu and select Library Media Center Resources.
Go down the database page and on the Left hand side find the "Articles and Reference section" and in that section be looking for the "Student Research Center."
Always begin with a question, then use that question to formulate your search by choosing a qualified Database, In our case we will select the "Student Research Center" under "Articles and Reference on the Database Page. Next put in the search box at the top of the page we will insert the following question: "is global warming man made," Notice we are not suggesting an answer. Now Click on the Search Button.
You will now see a page showing many articles in a list from a varriety of news sources. Initatially the list comes up based on how many times your search words showed up in the article, We call that "Relavance" you can also order your information by "Date Decending" as well as "Date Assending," the idea being people might have found out more information recently...
The Top two articles in the Relevance Search are, " 1. GLOBAL WARMING: Man-Made or Natural? By: Singer, S. Fred. USA Today Magazine. Mar2008, Vol. 136 Issue 2754," and "Which of These Is Not Causing Global Warming Today? By: Begley, Sharon; Murr, Andrew. Newsweek. 7/2/2007, Vol. 150 Issue 2, p48-50. 3p. 3 Color Photographs, 1 Chart, 1 Graph. Reading Level (Lexile): 1270."
We will use those to examine our issue by talking about the article.
Both of these articles are not real old but they are about the same age. Neither are they real new. New information at times is critical.
The first article comes from the conservative Think Tank Hillsdale College we know this because when we click into the article additional information shows up.
The Abstract section states: "The article presents a discussion of global warming, adapted from a speech delivered by Fred Singer during a seminar entitled "Economics and the Environment" at Hillsdale College in Michigan."
You can find out more about an institution by simply searching Google for information about that institution. In this case I searched , "hillsdale college" and got the reply that it is a famous Conservative liberal arts College,
Then you should qualify if the source is legitimate: This source is Wikipedia and it's resources include books by and about Hillsdale College." including many articles about the college from other notable sources. What institutions say about themselves is very important.
Fred Singer is also cited here and if we search his name he is a heavily published writer of books, speeches and articles... This is a good sign that he is a great source of information.
Also from Wikipedia we learn that "Sharon Begley is an American journalist. She wrote a science column for Newsweek. Begley also contributed to The Daily Beast[1]" We know this by simply by searching her name in Google and coming up with a Wikipedia article about her.
And we learn that Andrew Murr, MD is a clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. The article also cites scientific journals like the NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, a very good sign you have valid information.
Good Credentials for both articles: So now it's up to us to read the articles... So lets say you don't have time to do so now... You can click on the print button and print the article.
You can also e-mail your article or you can save the article to your flashdrive. Be Sure to use the pulldown to save the citation format correctly. Either APA or MLA 7 Depending on what your teacher requires.
Now the article is in a format you can just save to your hard drive or copy and past into a Google Drive Document or save to your flashdrive. The options are yours.
Now you are free to read the articles at your leisure and evaluate their arguments
I hope this helps you to use the Students Research Center to find articles on your subject, evaluate and formulate your own beliefs based on this very valuable resource.
As always I wish you the best of searches. Remember to drop by the Media Center when you have questions and want to be further empowered in your endeavors. Have a great day.