SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Issues Researcher

Today I used SIRS Discover and SIRS Issues Researcher for the first time.

Instead of coming up with a different animal, I stuck with the armadillo, after remembering a fairly recent David Letterman Show where Jungle Jack Hannah brought his animals, including an armadillo. David Letterman was terrified of the animal, not because it was ferocious or had sharp teeth or poison venom, but because of the link between armadillos and leprosy. I didn’t realize that they are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy and they are used for research on the disease.

From Wild Lexile 1090

I also found another article that discussed how they were named by the Spanish, a word that meant little armored man. The native people were superstitious of the animal because they thought of them as grave robbers.

From    Wild Outdoor Life  Lexile 1090

Country Research: Scotland

There were several categories under the country such as: People, Daily Life, Language, Food, Dress, Arts & Music, Religion, Holidays, Traditions & Folklore, and Fun facts. It also included a map of the United Kingdom.

Maps of the World:

I picked Ireland Before the Normans c1100. The legend included

MIDE- over-kingdoms

Airthir-Sub-Kingdoms and territories

UA Neill-Principal dynastic surname

UA Bric-Lesser dynastic surnames

Symbol for a town- trading town

I found out that many of the trading towns in 1100 A.D. are the same large cities of today, except in Northern Ireland, where there were no large towns at that time.  Such areas as Belfast and Derry were not heavily populated at that time.

In Database Features I picked Fiction and looked at the short story Night Run by Sherry Shahan from Highlights for Children Dec. 2010. I thought this story about dogsledding might be of interest to students since a young person won the famous Iditarod Sled Race this year.

SIRS Issues Researcher

I watched one of the clips on Obesity which modeled how to do research and use facts.

I used the topic Censorship and concentrated on book banning. I read an article about a book  And Tango Makes Three on two males penguins watching over an egg that caused controversy because of homosexual themes. I also read about the controversial new version of Huckleberry Finn for use in schools that has been sanitized by substituting less controversial words. There was also an article on Paypal's decision to censure books that find too controversial because of sexual themes. This has been a popular topic on many of the writing listservs I belong to.