NCHS Library News

The library media lab is open for business! Students can use the green screen & lighting equipment to film projects for class (or just for fun). Students may borrow library laptops to edit projects. The media lab is available on a first come, first serve basis to anyone who needs it, and it is open after school as long as the library is open.

The NCHS Techxperts are going to take turns introducing new tools in the makerspace. Someone will be on hand to introduce at least one new idea per day. Be sure to check the schedule, and this is not limited to Techxperts! Anyone can facilitate a learning session. Students, and parents are welcome!

Ms. Rothschild’s 9th grade Global History I students participated in a two day “research bootcamp”. They were assigned a specific feature of Ancient Greek civilization, and asked to explain it to the class in under one minute (filmed!). To learn about their civilization, they were tasked with finding three database or eBook resources and cite them. In a debrief following the experience, students said they enjoyed the following aspects of this exercise:

• We all got our own topics

• Good insight into Greek civilization
• Each topic led to the next
  

• Fun way to learn a lot fast

• Good for research

• We got to make it our own

• One-minute presentations

• Independent learning

• Simplicity of the task

• Teaching what we knew

• Transforming notes into paragraphs

• Was nice to present with notes

• Was able to learn more in-depth information

• Students assigned the same topics focused on different things

As the juniors work on the first (English) of the two research papers they will write this year, they are discovering new strategies to create their own statistical analysis using interactive databases, such as Statista, Social Explorer, and Roper iPoll. Many classes discovered why OP-ED articles are called OP-ED by using print newspapers. This lesson will help learners distinguish between objective and subjective journalism when using online news media for research and help them embed references properly.

The library program developed four lessons for the fall research paper. Librarians will build on these lessons in the spring when they work with juniors on their social studies research paper.

• Keyword searching
• Library resources
• Documenting Research
• Objective v. Subjective Journalism

Photography students explore intellectual property (Copyright & Fair Use) and the use of online bibliographic generation tools-EasyBib. Students research “text” on a noted photographer using a variety of NCHS library resources such as Grove Art History Online.

Somewhat Virtual Book Club met on November 4th to discuss Laurie Halse Anderson's The Impossible Knife of Memory via Google Hangouts with three schools in other states (California, Oregon, South Carolina)! Dorman High School in Roebuck, SC facilitated the discussion and challenged participants to answer thought-provoking questions. The club will next meet on December 2nd at 6PM in the high school library to discuss The Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave. Dorman High School, in Roebuck, South Carolina will facilitate the discussion in December.

The makerspace received a generous grant from the PFA in November. Students and faculty are very excited to see robotics and coding added to the makerspace offerings. As part of a 10 month roll out plan, the library introduced the the media lab to its makerspace. The shift came late in the month so stay tuned for more details and photos!

We post much of our research instruction on THE ANNEX@ (our instructional blog). It's the go to resource for students who wish to review what we taught in class.

Email: contact@nchslibrary.info
Website: nchslibrary.info
Location: 11 Farm Road, New Canaan, CT, United States
Phone: (615) 669 6670
Facebook: facebook.com/nchslibrary
Twitter: @nchslmc