Quick Summary
April's Resource Pack invites students of all ages to dive into STEM exploration through engaging ebooks, accessible academic databases, and curated primary sources. Whether introducing younger learners to basic scientific concepts or supporting advanced science research for older students, these resources provide endless opportunities for discovery.
April brings the start of spring, and it is a fantastic time to think about how things work. How do birds know to migrate? How do trees and flowers bloom? How can we test our new flying drone outside? Read ahead to uncover the many ways that you can encourage students to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in this month's Resource Pack. The April pack includes a variety of engaging resources from eLibraryMN, Ebooks Minnesota, and Minnesota Digital Library about scientific topics, the scientific process, famous scientists, and more. The pack provides educators a mix of academic article databases, ebooks, and primary sources to share with students.
For younger students, access Britannica for age-leveled and accessible entries that will introduce scientific concepts, or take them to PebbleGo to start learning about animal behavior and habitats. When they are ready to start researching science ideas on their own, EBSCO Explora's Science and Practicing Science areas will get them started with nearly endless pathways for exploration.
As students progress into middle and high school, curricular STEM demands increase. Use the EBSCO Explora STEM portal as a place to start students' STEM studies. If you'd like to really focus the options for student science research, bring them to EBSCO's Science Reference Center. While this resource is included in Explora, the SRC is a smaller, more curated option. And don't forget that you can always use the ELM databases for the full text journals that they provide. Link to magazines like Popular Science, Smithsonian, and Discover, where students can read without paywalls. Scroll to the bottom of the Explora home page to get some ideas.
For STEM topics, Ebooks Minnesota has you covered with age appropriate how-tos and nonfiction titles around various STEM topics. To introduce Exploring technology jobs or learning about the earth and sun on a platform that all students can access, reading Ebooks Minnesota titles in the MackinVIA app is a great and safe ebook experience. Older students can learn more about the implications of technology in the 9-12 collection with titles such as The Fukushima Disaster and the Double Helix, or explore the platform for many, many more science ebooks. Contact us today if you have not yet set up your local instance of MackinVIA to access Ebooks Minnesota titles for your school.
If you are looking for primary sources, the Minnesota Digital Library is full of unique records of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in the past. Hone your students’ historical thinking skills by examining photographs for similarities and differences, changes over time, missing perspectives, and more. Explore examples of the many ways science is used in our everyday lives - from bridge building to nursing to pharmacy to mapping. Imagine what it was like to conduct an experiment in a lab 50 years ago, or even 100. This set contains only a small sample of what you can find in MDL, so make some time to search for more on our website.
Explore the STEM pack today!
Image credit: Four students performing experiments in a chemistry lab at Bethel University, St. Paul, 1950-1960. Bethel University Archive collection, https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p15160coll13:82
