U.S. Information for K-12 Students, Parents, and Educators

Web Resources by Topic / UI Libraries' Resources for Educators

This guide is intended to provide quick access to information for and about students younger than 18 years of age using selected resources on the web and in the UI Libraries', particularly the government information collection.

Web Resources by Topic

Gateway Websites:

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government provides both a subject and agency listing of federal government web resources.

Kids.gov is arranged by broad topics and by age and teacher specific resources.

Arts:

Art and Design from the Smithsonian Institution includes images, description of the art form, artists biographies, and art of different regions and cultures. for younger students  ; for educators

ArtsEdge from the Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts provides educators with research and instructional tools, professional association contacts, as well as multi-media interactive art experiences for students.

NGA Kids from the National Gallery of Art provides online interactive activities and projects and promotes the visual arts and lessons in art history.

Sciences:

Anthropology

Anthopology on the Internet is sponsored by the John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.

Astronomy

NASA click "Students" or "Educator" in the upper left box. Spanish language version

Earth Sciences

Earthquake information from the Geological Survey for students and teachers.

Energy information from the Energy Information Administration with links for younger students.

Environment

EPA for younger students, for Middle School Students and for High School Students.

Highschool Environment Center

NOAA Education Resources includes information about weather, climate, oceans, satellites and space.

Geology U.S. Geological Survey provides scientific information about natural resources, natural hazards, geospatial data, and issues that affect our quality of life. Includes online resources, to support teaching, learning, education (K-12), and university-level inquiry and research.

Weather from the National Severe Storms Laboratory.

General Science

Science and Technology from the Smithsonian Institution covers a full range of science topics in multimedia formats. Lesson plans are available at the educator's companion site.

Science and Nature is designed for younger students.

Science.gov is a topically arranged collection of government databases and web-based publications.

Health Issues

Centers for Disease Control and Spanish language version

Health Topics A-Z is from the Centers for Disease Control.

Health Information for all age groups is available from the National Library of Medicine.

Kids' Quest on Disability and Health is designed for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders to better understand the challenges faced by people with disabilities.

Medline Plus and Spanish language version.

Tox Town from the NLM is geared to younger students and describes environmental health risks in everyday life. Spanish language version

Social Sciences

Census in Schools sponsored by the Bureau of the Census includes teaching materials and downloadable reference materials.  Census information for young students can be found in the Kids' Corner.

Government

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy sponsored by GPO provides links to full-text of the primary collection of federal documents.

House of Representatives includes addresses of Congressman, information about how Congress works and the text of bills and laws. For younger students

National Debate Topic is a bibliography of resources and references compiled by the Library of Congress in support of the high school debate topic.  The online source includes 1996/97 through 2007/08 topics.  The University of Iowa Libraries collection contains bibliographies from 1966/67 through 2006/07 with varying call numbers as Congressional Documents.  InfoHawk provides call numbers for debate topics from 1977 through 2007. 

Senate includes addresses of Senators, information about the Senate and related links.

Understanding Taxes from the Internal Revenue Service to provide high school students an understanding of the history, theory, and application of taxes in the United States.  Includes lessons, activities, and tutorials.

History

American Memory is a browseable collection of Library of Congress resources including images and text of original documents. A teachers' link that includes lesson plans and professional development opportunities is available.

History and Culture from the Smithsonian covers a broad range of topics in multimedia formats. for younger students ; for educators

Holocaust:  Learning about the Holocaust for Students from the United State Holocaust Museum encourages reflection on moral and ethical questions, citizen responsibilities, and the effects of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in society.

Smithsonian Kids: A Smithsonian Idea Lab is a selected guide to the Smithsonian collections and links to related museums and activities for students and teachers.

The World

Background Notes is a concise country description from the Department of State.

Country Profiles provides thorough country descriptions and is sponsored by the Library of Congress.

Worldwise Schools from the Peace Corps provides audio stories from volunteers, cross-cultural lesson plans, and opportunities to create classroom/volunteer teaching partnerships.

UI Libraries' Resources for Educators

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a finding tool for electronic and print publications from the three branches of the U.S. government containing descriptive records for historical and current publications from 1976 to present.  As older publications are cataloged and digitized the CGP will become the central point for locating new and historical Government publications.

Condition of Education summarizes important developments and trends in education.  Earlier editions of the publication are in the Libraries' (Gov. Pubs. Collection ED 1.109: 1981 in microfiche; 1982-1989 1990-1999 2000-2006; Main Library L112 .C61975-1979 in print).

Curriculum Laboratory Resources Catalog This database indexes all books for children and young adults, non-print materials, curriculum guides, teacher resource books, and K-12 textbooks in the Curriculum Resources Laboratory collection, College of Education, The University of Iowa. Borrowing is limited.

Digest of Education Statisitics is compilation of statistical information in field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. (Archived online issues 1990-2002; in print Gov. Pubs. Collection L112 .A35 from 1975-2005).

ERIC provides indexing to bibliographic records from 1966-present with a growing number of fulll-text documents in PDF format.  Contents includes journal articles, book, research syntheses, conference papers, technical report, policy papers, and other education-related materials.  Please note that all ERIC documents 1966-July 2004 are available in microfiche in the Media Services Department, Main Library.

InfoHawk Catalog provides reliable indexing for government publications from the early 1990's to the present.  Earlier periodical titles, series, and annual publications may also be located found in InfoHawk.  Choose 'Advanced Search', enter the appropriate search terms, then limit by 'Government Publications' location.  Most print government publications may be borrowed either directly or through Interlibrary Loan.

Several indexes to historical publications are available in print in the UI Libraries. Help is available via Electonic Reference or through the Staff Directory.

Revised, M. Mason
August 2007