I found this challenge to be very much worth my while.  I think the most valuable tool for me will be the worldbookonline site.  So much information there and neat things for the kids to use, especially for those who struggle with reading.  Also the pictures, music, videos, other websites it suggests.  Very useful and easy to use.  I also really like the Mango Languages site and the Ancestry site.  Honestly more for my personal use than my students, but Mango would be really good for a student with English as a second language.

I have already shared/showed a few of my colleagues some sites that I have researched and they seem interested as well.

I searched my name on Ancestry Library and found that they were off on my birthday by a few days.  My residence for the year 1994 was correct.  I also noticed a list of some close and not so close relatives listed.  I went to the edit search tab and typed in my marriage date and place and got basically the same results.

I then typed in a couple of my paternal grandfather and found a copy of his and my grandmothers marriage license.  Also found him listed in a federal census registry albeit with his first name misspelled.    Also found out that his father was born in Austria, which is something I find interesting since the family originated in Bohemia in Czechoslovakia.  I typed in a few of my great-grandparents and didn't have much luck.  I did find one in a federal census registry, however.

I went to the pictures page for South Dakota and got mostly baseball players.

Tried to get to Heritage Quest and got nothing but a blank white page.

I went to Sanborn Maps and sadly discovered that there were no towns from Charles Mix county on the list.  I then went to a few towns around the area such as Delmont and Armour.  I thought it was a little bit difficult to navigate through the maps.  I guess perhaps I'm used to the Google maps where you can sort of "glide" around and find certain points.  I did notice how in several of these little towns that they all had at least one lumber yard and in some cases more.  Kind of crazy to think about today.

On the Worldcat site I chose the book "Ava's Man" by Rick Bragg.  There were 7 results and 2,268 libraries worldwide have this book.  The "top" library was the Alexander Mitchell Library.  The class descriptors were:  LC:  CT275.B78516 and Dewey:  975/.042/092;B

Other books by this author included:  "I am a Soldier Too:  the Jessica Lynch Story", "All Over but the Shoutin", and "The Prince of Frogtown".

The subject list was a list of related subjects with a percentage next to it.  The top subject on this list was "Alabama".  After clicking on this another list showed up.  This list included books, serial #s, archives, maps, etc. relating to the state of Alabama.

This site would definitely be beneficial for those doing research on virtually any topic.  Also, if you were impressed with the author you could find what else he/she had written.  Even if you weren't impressed with an author, you could at least find some more information on the subject the author had written about.

On the OAIster site, after searching South Dakota, I went to the link "Facts on Kids".  Up popped various state agencies and I chose the South Dakota fisheries under the Game, Fish, and Parks.  I perused the report on Lake Oahe.  Included was information on different fish populations, harvest surveys, stocking reports, etc.  Why this was under "Facts on Kids", I'm not sure.  I do think this site would be good if you are looking for some statistical data on any number of things.

eBooks on EBSCOhost

I first searched Red Cloud's War.  I had to go down to the 5th option before I actually got to anything about Red Cloud.  I got books on World War II and aviation and weather.  I noticed how you could go to the table of contents and view the "Most Relevant Pages".  The table of contents for the two books I chose revealed nothing but the title of the book.  Also, some of the "Most Relevant Pages" looked to be index pages.

As far as the Constitution Day projects I would recommend the following:

1.  Representing Popular Sovereignty:  The Constitution in American Political Culture

2.  Our Elusive Constitution:  Silences, Paradoxes, Priorities

3.  The Constitution, the Law, and Freedom of Expression 1787-1987

When I went to the Advanced Search I chose Nebraska.  Everything there seems to be from the University of Nebraska Press.  Many things on Native Americans.   Top three were:

1.  Turtle Lung Woman's Daughter

2.  Science and Native American Communities:  Legacies of Pain, Visions of Promise

3.  A Final Promise:  The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians 1880-1920.

The Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures 2012 is the title I chose.  It gives a list of every country in the world.  I chose the Czech Republic.  It started by giving the basic facts of the country such as population, religion, language, etc.  There were 20 different topics about Czech culture with a paragraph or two briefly describing each one.  Some examples of the topics were major holidays, relationships (in this title in included how to greet people), clothing, food (to which it also adds a recipe for a popular dish), and employment.  I was also interested to read about the (at least) preceived problems of the Czech Republic, one of those being the fact that women are paid roughly half of what men are in most professions.  The bibliography included books and websites from where this information was gleaned.

I would absolutely use this in my geography classes.  I like to have students compare and contrast their cultures with cultures from around the world.  This would be the perfect site to go to for such an assignment.  You can also translate the text to a variety of different languages as well as listen to the text.

For the second part of this assignment I searched the Battle of Gettysburg.  I was provided with a site that gave the basic layout of the battle, pictures of generals, and maps.  One was also able to explore biographies on various generals who were at the battle. There was a link to the Gettysburg Address that would be useful as well.  We generally do a unit on this battle and the information hear would definitely help the students with the projects that go with the assignments. 

I searched Winter Olympics at the Proquest site and found a wealth of information available.  The related searches tab on the left makes it very easy to find the most specific subjects.  You could pick specific athletes, sports, profiles, advertisements used, personal profiles, etc.  Also, the publication dates would be helpful if you are looking for a certain time period.

I was not really impressed with the Publications tab.  I tried typing in different subjects and was told nothing was found.  I did find some information on the Civil War, but to me this was not very user friendly.  I guess I'm not sure what full text means, but I assumed that if I went to a magazine I would get the "full text" article but it would just give me table of contents on the couple I clicked on.  Maybe I need to give it more time but I think if I were doing some research I would use some of the other sites already studied in this class.

I searched armadillos on SIRS Discoverer.  I clicked on graphics and got 10 different pictures, one being a chart of different animal defenses.  When I clicked on Lexile it arranged the articles from lowest to highest.  It also categorizes articles into reading levels that are general, easy, moderate, and challenging which would be beneficial to most classrooms I would think.  I know my classes have a broad range of student ability and this makes picking reading material fairly easy.

The country I chose was Pakistan.  It listed basic facts such as the capital, climate, population, etc.  When I clicked on the maps section I did notice that almost all of them were political in nature with counties, provinces, highways, etc listed.  It would have been nice to see more physical and thematic maps in this section.  One feature that I did find valuable was the "All Articles" tab to get some information on the country/region.  We do current events from time to time and this would be a valuable tool to use for that.

The activities page included an immigration map as well as a tutorial on how to create a timeline which is something we use often in geography. There were also various activities for all the different content areas.

On the SIRS Issues Researcher I chose the topic of smoking bans.  The Topic Overview gives a brief history of smoking in the U.S. including when the Surgeon General's first warning came out.  Lists the pros/cons and essential questions.  It provides a list of key terms to know and the definitions.  It also includes additional resources and events related to smoking bans.

The Research Tools section gives various studies and research done, magazines and newspaper articles, charts, graphs, and maps.  Also, under "My Analysis", it gives you a list of questions to consider when choosing a topic as well as a Debate Guide and writing help.

The Articles section was, as one would suppose, full of various articles from newspapers and magazines.

Under Curriculum Pathfinders I searched under social studies and it showed different courses, timelines, maps, and primary sources to use along with research ideas.  A click on "research ideas" gives a list of different sites one can choose from.  Under the graphics and multimedia tab there are excellent pieces of information that would come in handy when researching for a paper, speech, or debate.