Synergy: Outdoor Adventures

Children are increasingly disconnected from nature. Immersing children in nature is essential in nurturing physical and mental well-being as well as encouraging environmental stewardship.

Read the recently published children's book, then learn more through the websites:

THE NOT-SO GREAT OUTDOORS by Madeline Kloepper tells the story of a city dweller who reluctantly learns the joys of adventures in nature. Featuring a diverse family, this colorful and visually rich story will feel familiar to many city and rural dwellers alike.

KIDS IN THE PARK from the National Park Service introduces young people to the national parks. Help a child become a Junior Ranger. Go to https://www.nps.gov/kids.

PARKS CANADA XPLORERS has a program that encourages young adventures visiting Parks Canada locations. Go to https://bit.ly/36ETw0w.

ARC courtesy of Tundra an imprint of Penguin/Random House.

Synergy: Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer from the Baroque Period who composed a wide range of music.

Read the recently published children's book, then learn more at the website:

BACH TO THE RESCUE by Tom Angleberger uses colorful illustrations and a humorous approach to tell the story of how Bach composed Goldberg Variations.

Sponsored by Cincinnati Public Radio, Classics for Kids presents short biographies of composers including Bach from throughout history. In addition to background information, the website also includes a short audio clip, links to audio programs, and a lesson plan.

Composers for Kids https://www.classicsforkids.com/composers.html 
Johann Sebastian Bach https://bit.ly/2J4wWEO

ARC courtesy of Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Books + Websites = Lamb's Synergy

SYNERGY is a new column written by Annette Lamb that connects recently published books for youth with engaging Internet resources to encourage reading and exploration.

Digital Spotlight: The Science Collection

THE SCIENCE COLLECTION from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries is a set of digital collections focusing on specific areas of science such as botany, anatomy, and ecology.

Contents: Intended as a resource for the teaching of scientific disciplines the collections include subject-specific resources. Of particular note is the botany collection and veterinary anatomical illustrations.

Classroom Connections: Teachers will find these science resources useful in developing class presentations and as examples in instructional materials. Librarians may wish to partner with teachers to mine the sites for particular collections of interest.

Featured Digital Objects:
Maple Leaf http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/…/Grou…/reference/32.8r.jpg
Mitosis https://goo.gl/EGHJTP
Animal Anatomy https://goo.gl/EW2r4D

To visit the collection, go to https://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/science/.

Technology Review: Color Our Collections

COLOR OUR COLLECTIONS is a promotion that encourages people to get out their pencils, markers, and crayons to color visuals from library and museum collections.

From the Smithsonian to the New York Public Library, institutions are creating and sharing coloring book pages for artists of all ages to use. The Color Our Collection event is a fun way to promote public domain visuals, primary sources and cultural heritage. Held the first week in February, the coloring pages can be accessed year round. The New York Academy of Medicine Library jumpstarted the campaign by sharing science-related pages from it’s digital collections. They maintain a list of participating institutions.

Librarians will find this campaign to be a fun way to promote art, history, and digital collections. Set up a markerspace in the library to share the fun with the entire school.

Participating Institutions - http://library.nyam.org/colorou…/participating-institutions/
Biodiversity Heritage Library - http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/coll…/ColorOurCollections
New York Public Library - https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/01/color-our-collections

To follow on Twitter, go to https://twitter.com/hashtag/colorourcollections

Website Review: Analytics.usa.gov

ANALYTICS.USA.GOV is a fascinating statistical website from the U.S. federal government.

The website shows how many people are currently at government websites and tracks activities over time. Users can view the traffic over the past 90 days and see what devices, browsers, and operating systems are used by visitors. For instance, more than 40% of users are now using Google’s Chrome.

Users can also track what government domains have the most traffic. For instance during a 30 day period in Fall 2015, the most visited locations included National Institutes of Health, NOAA’s Weather, the Center for Disease Control, the Internal Revenue Service, and NASA. The data comes from Google Analytics.

Librarians will find this to be a captivating website to use with youth. Whether discussing website use with technology students or integrating real-world statistics into a math class, there are many uses for this website across the curriculum. Also, consider an activity that involves students evaluating the most used websites.

To learn more, go to https://analytics.usa.gov/.

Website Review: Smithsonian's History Explorer

THE SMITHSONIAN’S HISTORY EXPLORER website provides access to high-quality teaching and learning materials.

The Lesson & Activities section contains hundreds of standards-based educational resources. Users can search by key words and filter results by grade, resource type, historical era, and cross curricular connections.

The Interactives & Media area features audio, video, and interactive resources such as 3D tours, learning games, and tutorials.

The Museum Artifacts element uses an object-based learning approach applying artifacts from the Smithsonian’s collection.

The Themes section explores major topics from American history such as immigration, civil rights movement, westward expansion, and War of 1812.

The Books area features selected children’s books that represent particular historical eras. These titles can be organized by reading level.

The Teacher Resources provides materials to help educators teach with primary resources. This section also links to a variety of professional development materials and opportunities.

The Web Links area links to over one hundred useful websites related to American History. These websites are specifically aimed at K-12 youth.

Librarians will find many opportunities to connect classroom teachers with standards-based activities and resources. Specifically seek out those materials that stress inquiry-based learning and primary sources.

To visit the website, go to http://historyexplorer.si.edu.

Tech Review: Irish American Heritage Month

March is Irish American Heritage Month. Over 10% of Americans report Irish ancestry.

Check out the Presidential Proclamation at White House website at http://goo.gl/GGnWup.

Wikipedia’s article on Irish Americans at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_American includes a history, heritage, and cultural information. It also explores famous people of Irish descent.

During the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s, many people came to the United States from Ireland to escape the agricultural disaster. The Irish Potato Famine Interactive is a a great way for children to learn about this event. Go to http://www.irishpotatofamine.org/flash.html.

Explore the Lonely Planet: Ireland guide at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ireland to learn about the country.

Irish America magazine is a periodical and website focusing on Irish interests in North America. Although not designed specifically for youth, it’s a great source of information. Their lists related to Irish-American accomplishments are of particular interest and would be good for bulletin board ideas for the library. Go to http://irishamerica.com/.

For lots of great infographics, do a Google Images search for Irish American at https://images.google.com/.