Mobile Optimized K-12 Resources Empower Educators and Engage Students

ProQuest introduces enhancements to SIRS Issues Researcher and SIRS Discoverer

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Sep 25, 2014, 11:00 ET

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Educators and students this fall are benefiting from online resources from ProQuest that are mobile optimized, include new instructional tools and features, and vetted content aligned to national standards. Now formatted for easy screen reading on a variety of smart phones and tablets, today's anytime-anywhere learner can access full-text and image information in the SIRS^® Issues Researcher (http://bit.ly/1pr3BAr?wt.mc_id=SIRSIRNR092514) and SIRS Discoverer^® (http://bit.ly/1oh4GeW?wt.mc_id=SIRSDNR092514) research resources. Delivering a more seamless experience for the student using a mobile or desktop device, source information is displayed, making it easy to select articles, media or website links. Additionally, prominent one-click link features foster collaboration with other students and make citation effortless with direct export to the EasyBib citation tool.

"We recognize that it is essential to provide students access to content rich resources, regardless of the device they are using," said Tami Kirk, product manager, ProQuest. "Enhancing these resources with tailored content and tools that support national, state, Common Core and classroom curriculum standards is a benefit to teachers and students. And, staying at the forefront of leading issues and providing instructional guides with student assignments improves student learning outcomes and also simplifies lesson planning for teachers."

Recognized as a best-in-class social sciences instructional solution, the award-winning SIRS Issues Researcher offers curated, unique content supported by Topic Overviews, Essential Questions and Viewpoint Articles—providing students with a solid foundation for understanding the pros and cons of 350+ Leading Issues. New features now available include:

Eight new frequently-debated current Leading Issues—including Antibiotic Resistance, School Environment, and World Cultures.
A new Infographics feature that supports the curriculum standard requiring students to use quantitative data and graphics to address a question or solve a problem.
Three new teaching and learning guides correlating to Common Core Standards, providing deeper understanding of primary sources, statistics and infographics.

Designed for K-8 students, SIRS Discoverer differentiates instruction of core curriculum areas with Lexile scores and supplemental teaching and learning materials. To help educators capture students' curiosity and foster learning with a variety of content formats, the new features now available include:

Pro/Con Leading Issues specifically created for research and English Language Arts (ELA) writing requirements with topic related materials to guide the student. The initial release includes 50 age-appropriate topics, including Animal Rights, Bullying, and Junk Food.
Animal Facts provides new contextual material for researching 50 animals and uses a scaffold learning approach to engage younger students, while providing additional links for deeper understanding by older students.

About ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company's products are a gateway to the world's knowledge including dissertations, governmental and cultural archives, news, historical collections and ebooks. ProQuest technologies serve users across the critical points in research, helping them discover, access, share, create and manage information.

The company's cloud-based technologies offer flexible solutions for librarians, students and researchers through the ProQuest^®, Bowker^®, Dialog^®, EBL^®, ebrary^® and Serials Solutions^® businesses – and notable research tools such as the Summon^® discovery service, Flow™, Pivot™ and the Intota™ library services platform. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.

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SOURCE ProQuest