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Thursday (11/17) marks the annual Great American Smokeout. This day is dedicated to actions that remind people that smoking is responsible for a variety of diseases and diminished health. Of course, the idea is to get smokers to quit and non-smokers not to begin this addictive habit.
Many teenagers continue to start this habit despite all the education and other efforts to point out hazards and unbecoming side effects. Providing a research activity on this topic in Health classes can support the Great American Smokeout as well as provide essential information to convince young people not to start to smoke.
Activity: Click the Topics search tab and type smoking and disease in the Search box. The results from this search will provide 13 subtopics you can use to divide the assignment into a variety of engaging mini-research assignments:
Smoking
Smoking AND Public health
Smoking AND Health
Smoking AND Cardiovascular disease
Smoking AND Disease
Smoking AND Smoking cessation
Smoking AND Tobacco industry
Smoking AND Bans
Smoking AND Tobacco
Smoking AND Cigarettes
Smoking AND Legislation
Disease
Emphysema
Here are some examples of research assignments that can be developed from these subtopics: legislation against smoking; diseases caused by smoking; campaigns to stop smoking; and tobacco industry settlement awards to states.
Students should use and cite three resources on the subtopic assigned to them. Oral reports of three minutes with questions from peers is an excellent way for students to learn from each other. It’s also an excellent way for them to learn essential presentation skills that are reflected in state standards and needed for success in college and careers.
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. Our World Edition includes 187 country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 68 countries and all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
CultureGrams goes beyond mere facts and figures to deliver an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
Country:
Suriname (New!)
Capital City: Paramaribo
Population: 481,146
Area: 63,039 square miles (163,270 sq km)
Real GDP per capita: $6,590
Adult literacy rate: 95% (male), 91% (female)
Infant mortality: 24 per 1,000 births
Life expectancy: 68 (male), 74 (female)
Did You Know?
About 80 percent of Suriname is covered with pristine tropical rainforest.
Suriname's diverse population includes Hindustanis, Creoles, Javanese, Maroons, and Amerindians.
Surinamers express dissatisfaction or annoyance by using the tjuri: one points the lips and sucks in air between the teeth and lips, while looking away.
Language
Most Surinamers speak Dutch, the nation's official language, but Sranan Tongo is the most common language for informal conversation. English is also widely spoken. Sranan Tongo (literally, “Suriname language”) is a creole language formed by the slaves brought to Suriname. It is often called Taki-taki (literally, “Talking”). Most words can be traced to English, Dutch, or Portuguese, while the grammar contains African elements. In everyday speech, people often switch back and forth between Sranan Tongo and Dutch.
General Attitudes
Education and owning a business are seen as high achievements due to the basis they provide for financial independence. Many Surinamers maintain a formal job for its pension and health benefits, while relying on the informal selling of goods and services (a practice known as hosselen) to earn extra money without the interference of a boss or the government. Hosselen may consist of baking for birthday celebrations, selling imported secondhand clothing, repairing bicycles, driving one's private car as a taxi, or other activities.
Diet
Surinamers of all ethnic groups enjoy cuisine with Asian, African, and European influences. Lunch, the main meal, typically consists of rice, vegetables, and meat or fish. Favorite dishes include pom (a Creole dish named for the ingredient pomtayer, a local root), bami (a Javanese noodle dish), and roti (a Hindustani dish of curried chicken, vegetables, and potato, wrapped in a flour pancake). Baked goods include boyo (a coconut flavored pastry) and viadu (a sweet raisin-almond bread).
Recreation
Suriname's most popular sports are soccer, basketball, and swimming. Residents of Paramaribo often spend free time on the beaches of the city's rivers and creeks, where they picnic, swim, and socialize. Surinamers of all groups and ages enjoy listening and dancing to live music, which is performed in many locations on weekends. Music festivals are common in August and September and during the December holiday season. The majority of Surinamers cannot afford to travel internationally, but the wealthy travel to the Netherlands (usually to visit family) and nearby Caribbean countries.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
Each month, our SKS WebSelect™ and Discoverer WebFind™ editorial teams scour the Internet for top-quality sites that help teachers teach and students learn. Although no Internet site can supplant a quality research database, these vetted resources offer unique resources that are sure to be of interest.
Based on a popular Harvard course taught by Dr. Armand Nicholi, author of The Question of God, the series illustrates the lives and insights of Sigmund Freud, a life-long critic of religious belief, and C.S. Lewis, a celebrated Oxford don, literary critic, and perhaps this century's most influential and popular proponent of faith based on reason." (PBS) On the companion site to the PBS program, examine the lives and works of Freud and Lewis and view panel discussions on issues of faith.
"What is time? We sense the passage of time in our personal experience and observe it in the world around us. We feel, think, and act in the flow of time... The measurement of time is an ancient science, though many of its discoveries are relatively recent." (BRITANNICA.COM) Learn all about devices that measure time, including sundials, clepsydras, pendulum clocks, cesium atomic clocks, and more.
This is the official George and Ira Gershwin website. Read the history of these 20th-century composers, listen to renditions of their songs, and view a timeline and anthology of their films and shows.
Our ProQuest product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription--and learn more about our other digital learning resources! We offer a wide variety of online training sessions each month.
You can download three ready-to-print versions of forthcoming training dates and times in PDF format.
Our training sessions cover after-school hours within several time zones. Best of all, there's no cost to participate. All you need is a computer with Internet access, a phone, and one hour.
What features of Platinum do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are planning to use it as part of an assignment or student research project? How do you and other curriculum leaders in your institution use your ProQuest educational resources?
Share your experiences with peers working in schools across the country and around the world--through an upcoming Product News Bulletin! We're waiting to hear from you. Please send your ideas and stories to: tim.mclain@il.proquest.com
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ProQuest offers a growing family of K-12 classroom-focused,
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(lexile) content, support
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Thursday (11/17) marks the annual 
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