BMS Media Center Monthly
January, 2013
Database of the Month
Visit the Media Center Database page and scroll down to "Science in Context" under Gale sites.
This site is better for our older or more advanced students, but includes features such as multimedia and audio which help make it accessible to our younger students as well.
You may also search by curriculum standard - science or mathematics.
"Science in Context features authoritative information for assignments and projects, and provides detailed coverage of popular subjects. From earth science and life science, to space, technology, mathematics and science history and biography, this revolutionary, this curriculum-oriented online experience is designed to boost achievement for students and researchers.
Science in Context delivers delivers integrated content through 150+ comprehensive reference sets from Gale Encyclopedia of Science, Chemical Elements, Science in Dispute and Macmillan Science Library, as well as:
- More than 22,000 topic overviews
- 7,000 biographies
- 1.5 million periodical articles from noted publications like Science Weekly, Science News and The Science Teacher
- 16,000 images and videos
- 170+ detailed experiments
- 8,100 biographies
- Two dictionaries"
Science in Context is also available in the Gale "Access My School Library App" available free on Apple and Android phones and tablets.
Website of the Month
New York Times Learning Network
"The Learning Network provides teaching and learning materials and ideas based on New York Times content. Teachers can use or adapt our lessons across subject areas and levels. Students can respond to our Opinion questions, take our News Quizzes, learn the Word of the Day, try our Test Yourself questions, complete a Fill-In or read our Poetry Pairings."
Staff Reading Suggestions
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
“A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it's been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what's been missing in her life, and when she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.”
The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro
“Boston painter Claire Roth has survived financially by painting reproductions, so when influential gallery owner Aiden Markel arrives with a bizarre proposal--her own show if she will forge a copy of a Degas, one of the pictures stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum--she says yes. As she works, Claire and Aiden become lovers, but she doesn't tell him about her discovery that the stolen Degas is itself a copy. This knowledge is Claire's lifeline when the finished forgery is discovered, Aiden and then Claire are both arrested, and only she can save them.”
Book Annotations from CLAMS: http://clamsnet.org
Bourne Middle School Media Center
Email: lweeks@bourne.k12.ma.us
Website: http://www.bourne.k12.ma.us/webpages/lweeks/?school=1441
Phone: 508.759.0690