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Themes:
Multiculturalism, business ethics +
Dear %%NAME%%,
Welcome to this month's issue of ProQuest Teachable Moments. This issue focuses on a myriad of topics, including Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Physical Fitness and Sports Month, Older Americans Month, business ethics, the zeppelin, transcontinental railroad, and much more.
Our monthly enewsletter delivers a set of hands-on learning activities that encourage students to conduct quality research and produce meaningful results to increase their knowledge and understanding of everything from basic math to literature to history and beyond. Keep in mind that these activities are not duplicated in our other monthly newsletters, which also contain ready-made lessons.
Have an idea or feedback concerning this newsletter? Send email to tim.mclain @ il.proquest.com today.
SIRS® Researcher
Leading Issues: Bolstering Achievement
Grades 6-12
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Thirty-two people (students and faculty members alike) were killed at Virginia Tech during an on-campus shooting rampage on April 16th.
Students of all ages in America, and throughout the world, are continuing to work through their reaction to this tragedy by drawing pictures, keeping journals, writing stories, and even creating Internet memorials.
Recently, the Columbine and the Pennsylvania Amish School shootings have also provided additional tragic experiences that have lead to similar response. More important, though are the gnawing questions that still need answers: "What causes people to commit these acts?" and "What can we do to prevent these acts or at least minimize the harm done?"
Activity: Questions like these and others are those that naturally motivate students to want to know about and then express their reasoned opinions -- a perfect scenario for a achievement-building research activity with Leading Issues.
Here are some examples of issues that relate to these events. Teachers can choose one or more for students to research and present their conclusions on the many issues centering on:
- School Violence (Updated)
- Gun Control
- Violence in Mass Media
- Depression, Mental
Assign students one of these related issues. Leading Issues provides the resources and the process for students to use the editor-selected resources to support many points of view. Leading Issues also provide four custom models of student projects that provide a variety of outcomes for the research process.
Click the Educators' Resources link at the top of your main Researcher search page. Look for these unique models that are correlated with the content and process steps of Leading Issues. They include two teacher management versions and four related versions for students.
Teacher Management Versions
- Creating a Debate Outline - Teacher's Edition
- Writing a Mini Research Paper - Teacher's Edition
Student Versions
- Guide to Writing a Research Paper
- Guide to Writing a Mini-Research Paper
- Guide to Creating a Debate Outline
- Guide to Creating a PowerPoint Presentation
Finally, don't miss our new Leading Issues handout, perfect for filling in access information and sending home with your students to encourage research on these important topics.
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eLibrary®
Business Ethics: An Oxymoron?
Grades 4-12
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May is Business Image Improvement Month. With so many recent scandals in business and government, surveys indicate near-record lows for public confidence in our leaders. Because of reforms in our laws, we are in the process of recovering from many of the business leader scandals earlier in this decade.
Sarbanes-Oxley is an example of a new law to help reduce accounting fraud that once led to stock price manipulations, huge bonuses for business leaders, and eroded the pensions and job security for millions of working Americans. Corruption is not limited to business, and is slowly being ferreted out by the new Congress elected for this purpose last November. A growing list of federal government scandals also seems to make news each week: Attorney General Roberto Gonzales, World Bank CEO Paul Wolfowitz, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Activity: ProQuest has created a model BookCart to help jump-start teachers in assigning a mini-research activity on this timely topic of ethics: Business Ethics: An Oxymoron?
To copy this BookCart and others to My Local Carts, read up on the process.
The Business Ethics BookCarts includes examples of Essential Questions for critical thinking included in the Description box. Teachers can use these examples as guides and create additional questions to assign to their students. These questions motivate and guide students to produce reports and presentations that integrate critical thinking to generate original thought and reasoned conclusions. Increasing achievement in essential skills requires critical thinking according to scientific research of the learning process.
Assign each student an essential question to answer in a two-minute oral report. Presentation skills are part of all curriculum standards and are important for success in college, careers, and life. Presentations also provide an opportunity for students to learn more than they could simply by having teachers read and grade individual reports. If questioning is encouraged, then they also help prevent plagiarism because students must know what they present.
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eLibrary® Elementary
Fit for Life
Grades 3-7
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May is Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Enjoying and playing sports helps elementary students form the foundation of attitudes, habits, and skills that will keep them active and fit for a lifetime.
Many schools have expanded their elementary Physical Education programs to include a greater emphasis on lifetime individual sports such as golf, tennis, swimming, hiking, and bicycling vs. the traditional approach of competitive team sports. Student participation in competitive team sports often fades as students get older because of the lack of time and opportunity to be part of a team, fear of injury, and lack of skill required.
Activity: Students need to learn more about the variety of individual sports that they can enjoy for a lifetime and that help them to stay fit in the process. Click the Topics tab > Sports and Gym > Sports. Assign each student a different sport to research and present to the class.
The sports assigned should be individual sports that combine recreation with fitness, for example: Kayaking; Bicycling; Rowing; Swimming; Golf; and Inline Skating.
Students should summarize information about the sport, mention something special or exciting about the sport, tell something about a famous athlete in this sport, and indicate how the sport contributes to fitness.
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CultureGrams™
Global Sports & Culture
Grades 5-10
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May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Identifying popular sports can tell you a lot about a country. For example, environment clearly plays a role, with skiing popular in snowy Sweden and sailing popular in the sunny Bahamas.
Some popular sports have deep cultural roots, like karate or sumo wrestling in Japan, while others are evidence of global connectivity, such as the spread of baseball and basketball from the United States. A country's popular sports can also say something about its colonial past.
CultureGrams is your link to this kind of in-depth information.
Divide the class into a few groups, giving each of them a copy of a blank world map. Using one color, have each group mark the location of the world's international cricket teams: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe. The West Indies also has a team, so have students mark Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia.
Assign each group to read the History sections of the above CultureGrams from the World Edition, noting each country's relationship with colonialism. Groups can read these together or, to save time, the countries can be divided among group members.
With a different color, have the groups indicate which of the countries is a former colony of Great Britain. Compare the two colors, noting the strong relationship between colonialism and the spread of cricket. Are there any countries where cricket is popular that are not former British colonies?
Discuss the long-lasting cultural effects of colonization. After the discussion, you may also want to have students read the Diet and Language sections of the England CultureGram and talk about the ways in which Great Britain has been influenced by its colonies.
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eLibrary® Science
Science: Prolonging Lives
Grades 5-12
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May is Older Americans Month. New research and discoveries in science and medicine have dramatically increased the lifespan of older Americans. May also targets a variety of other themes that focus on health issues that relate to older Americans: Arthritis; Better Hearing and Speech; Healthy Vision; Osteoporosis Awareness; and Stroke Prevention.
What new science will bring additional developments to stretch the life span and in particular the quality of life?
Activity: eLibrary Science has a growing collection of model BookCarts that Health and Science teachers can use to study health and wellness issues that relate to our eternal search for the fountain of youth. These models help teachers to get students started in researching science-related health issues because each includes the basics of a lesson plan.
Each provides a science standard, examples of essential questions for critical thinking, and a variety of quality learning resources with a mix of viewpoints. The essential questions guide students to inquire, explore, study, and present more than just facts. Students learn standards-based Science and Health content better than they would from textbooks, and also increase their digital research skills.
Copy the following examples of aging-related research BookCarts into you local collection and use them to assign mini-research activities to your students.
- Bioethics of Stem Cell Research: Science--Life /Technology
- Bioethics of Organ Transplantation: Science--Life/Technology
- Antibiotic Drug Resistance: Science--Life/Health
- Reversing the Aging Process: Science--Life/Health
To copy these BookCarts:
- Connect to our BookCart tutorial page.
- In eLibrary Science, click the ProQuest Carts tab > eLibrary Science--BookCarts folder.
- Click the Copy Icon next to each of the titles listed in #1. This will copy the BookCarts into your My Local Carts collection.
- Each copied Cart will have "Copy of" preceding its name.
- Edit each to include your name and delete "Copy of."
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ProQuest® Historical Newspapers
Transcontinental Railroad
Grades 5-10
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On May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit in modern day Utah, the last spike was hammered that completed the first transcontinental railroad. A telegram was sent to let the nation know the country was now connected by rail. It contained one word: "Done."
When this last symbolic golden spike was hammered, it united the rail lines of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads. With this connection it was then possible to travel from one end of the continental U.S. to the other end, solely by rail.
Activity: It has traditionally been argued that the opening of the transcontinental railroad was the single most important factor leading to the successful industrialization and development of the modern United States. Students can find out more about this historic event and how and why it came to be. Click the Topics tab > Westward Expansion and Imperialism (c. 1865 - 1900) > Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Students will be learn more about the Transcontinental Railroad when teachers assign essential questions for critical thinking to guide the process. Here are some examples for teachers to assign (they can create others that may be more appropriate for their students):
- Who planned and financed the building of the connection to the two railroads?
- Why did the builders decide to invest in this construction?
- What were some of the problems that had to be overcome during construction?
- Why was Utah decided to be the place for the connection?
- Where did the builders get the laborers they needed and what problems did that cause?
- How did the railroad help settlement of the West?
Students should select at least three resources in addressing the assigned questions. Reports should be approximately 150 to 200 words.
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eLibrary® Curriculum Edition
Multiculturalism
Grades 7-12
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Social Studies teachers are presented a great opportunity in May to help students celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Multiculturalism is a fact of life in the U.S. today. Demographic experts estimate that in the next decade, today's caucasian population majority will become a minority in America. That's why it's important to include learning experiences that help students appreciate each immigrant group's cultural and economic contributions toward the melting pot tradition honored by our national motto "E Pluribus Unum."
BookCart Activity: ProQuest has created a model BookCart to jump-start teachers and students in learning more about Asian Pacific Heritage Month. BookCarts have the resources and the essential questions to guide students to create reports that are more than facts but integrate critical thinking to generate original thought and reasoned conclusions.
Assign a 150-200 word written report or a two-minute PowerPoint presentation on one of a variety of subtopics that focus on different Asian-American ethic groups: religion; geography; holidays; significant historical events; unique cultural differences; etc. Copy this BookCart to My Local Carts.
ProQuest Learning: Literature Activity: Use this procedure to get resources for a report on Asian Authors: Click the Literature icon > type "Asian authors" in the Quick Search box > click Go > click More link to get a listing of all authors.
Assign a different author to each student. Students should report a summary of their author's major themes and works and any impact they may have had on the era.
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ProQuest® Platinum
Physical Fitness and Sports Month
Grades 6-12
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May is Physical Fitness and Sports Month. This is the best era ever for adult Americans getting involved in sports, especially individual sports, and the quest for physical fitness. This is also the best era for the number of adults who join thousands of health and fitness clubs, especially senior citizens.
Activity: Despite this increase in adult awareness of fitness, the incidence of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure are higher in Americans than in any other civilized country in the world. Unfortunately, this is truer of more students than ever before in history. How is this possible today? What can health and physical education teachers do to increase the awareness of lifetime fitness, nutrition, and sports being essential to students?
- Click the Topics tab > Type "physical fitness and sports" in the Search box.
- Click on Sports and Physical Fitness link > Click View Document link.
- Select three documents from the results list that address the following Essential Questions:
- Why does participation in sports not ensure physical fitness?
- How can sports programs help students to build good habits that lead to better physical fitness?
- What are some factors that contribute to overall physical fitness and why?
- How does the choice of a particular sport lend itself to lifetime fitness?
- How does proper nutrition improve sports performance and fitness?
These are examples of questions that motivate critical thinking and help students go beyond the typical "who, what, when, and where" type of questions generally associated with student research assignments. Teachers can and should create additional Essential Questions based on the interests of their students.
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SIRS® Decades
Business Image Improvement Month
Grades 7-12
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May is Business Image Improvement Month. The recent scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, Martha Stewart, and Adelphia Communications have resulted in calls for reforms that include more business courses focused on corporate ethics and character education.
Added to this is a growing list of federal government scandals such as Attorney General Roberto Gonzales, World Bank CEO Paul Wolfowitz, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. American citizens are probably at the lowest level of trust for business and government leaders in our short history.
Activity: There have been other periods in American history that have produced equally infamous business and government scandals and calls for reform. It would be interesting for students to study some of these eras and compare and contrast those eras and the leaders involved in scandals and corruption to the present.
- Click the 1900s icon > Big Business.
- Click the 1920s icon > Stock Market Crash and Teapot Dome Scandal.
Each of these topics represented a major abuse of power by big business leaders and interests. Each resulted in major harm to workers, consumers, and investors. Each of these situations called for major reforms by government to stop the abuse and restore the American people's confidence in business.
Assign one era to each third of the class and have them compare the abuses and reforms to those happening in their present world. Students should create a two-minute report addressing the questions below and comparing a past era scandal to a specific present scandal.
- What are the similarities between the abuses of this era with today?
- What are the differences between the abuses of this era and today?
- How are reforms proposed then similar or different from those proposed today?
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SIRS Discoverer®
The Hindenburg
Grades 4-7
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Seventy years ago this month, the great German airship Hindenburg hovered above its landing spot at Lakehurst Naval Station. It was a stormy day with thunderstorms rumbling in the atmosphere.
Suddenly, Commander Rosendahl saw a small burst of flame at the top of the craft. In less than a minute, the Hindenburg was consumed by a devastating fire. Herb Morrison, a radio broadcaster, was on the scene. His report, which aired the following day, remains one of the most famous radio broadcasts of the twentieth century. A video of the disaster was captured and is available today. Amazingly, two-thirds of the Hindenburg's passengers survived.
Zeppelins are a type of rigid airship pioneered by German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. They reached their zenith in the 1930s, when the airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg operated regular transatlantic flights between Germany and both North and South America. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937 triggered the fall of these "giants of the air," though other factors, including political issues, contributed. Today students are most familiar with the Goodyear dirigibles (blimps) that fly over stadiums and provide dramatic video of sporting events.
Activity: Why did the Hindenburg explode? Why are today's blimps safer than they were during the time of the Hindenburg? What are most common uses today for dirigibles? What is the future of these giants? These are some of the essential questions that will motivate students to want to discover more about dirigibles in general and the Hindenburg in particular.
Essential questions are the tool that turns research activities from an ongoing and boring scavenger hunt for facts into an exciting way to learn and express their own reasoned opinions and original thought. These questions are models that teachers may want to assign; or they may want to create others that also integrate the process of critical thinking. These questions are the key to real student learning and transfer of learning to other areas of the curriculum.
Assign one or more of these questions to students for their mini-research reports. Reports should use at least two sources and consist of 100 to 150 written words or an oral report of two minutes. If students have PowerPoint skills, they can integrate some great images and video. Students will find excellent information on this subject by using the following procedure:
- Click the Subject Headings option.
- Type "dirigible" in the Search box.
- Click 2. Dirigibles (See: Airships).
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