How to Research
Brought to you by Jennifer Timinski of the Woodbridge Public Library, this database tutorial helps you to search for and find information more successfully.
Simple Wikipedia
Simple Wikipedia writes in Simple English, to make ideas easier to make sense of than the standard Wikipedia article. You might use it to learn about ideas in science you want to know more about, but want a way to understand it in more common words.
"Do I Have a Good Inference?" Flow Chart
Inferences, which are conclusions that you determine from facts or premises, are important to good experimental results. The first link gives you some building blocks, from which to construct inferences. The second link provides a flow chart, which can guide you to what you should do when making an inference. Remember, it's okay for an inference to start out wrong, as long as you are providing some evidence to back up your claims!
Sigfigs - How to Use
Significant figures can be a tricky subject. What numbers can you trust when you measure them? Which are estimates? Is this 0 really a 0, or is it just a placeholder? This playlist can help you review and make sense of these numbers that you get from measurements you made, or that others make.
A Guide to Annotation
An annotation is "a note added by way of comment or explanation" (Merriam-Webster). Taking annotations in books that you're allowed to write in is a great way to mark your thoughts when reading a text, making it easier to review what you've read (and to remember what you were thinking when you read it)!
Seven Highly-Effective Reading Methods
Scientific articles and texts may require you to read in a way that's different from how you might read your favorite book. These seven reading methods do not include every possible way you could read text to try to get information out of it, but do represent a few different ways you could approach reading. It's all about having the right tool for the job!
Citation Machine, Purdue OWL
Knowing exactly how to credit work that you are referencing, to support an argument or claim that you are making, is sometimes even more important in Science than in Language Arts! There have been people who have gotten in trouble for saying that they wrote something, and took credit for work that isn't theirs. For your convenience, we will be using MLA citation format for any written work that draws upon resources others wrote, so that you can give credit to (and proof of) authors that support what you are saying.
Rewordify
Sometimes, scientific vocabulary can be hard to understand. Rewordify allows you to paste or type in text, and simplify difficult English.