The Encyclopedia of Alabama is a
free, online reference resource on Alabama’s history, culture, geography, and
natural environment. The resource has a plethora of resources that would be
able to be used in the 4-12th grade classrooms. It would be
recommended that students are old enough to navigate webpages but the resource
is very user friendly. The categories that you will find in the encyclopedia
are as follows: agriculture, arts & literature, business & industry,
education, folk life, geography & environment, government & politics,
history, peoples, religion, science & technology, and sports &
recreation. There are even galleries and features on prominent things and
people in Alabama. As a civics and geography teacher the options for this
resource in my classroom are endless. It puts the research in one place for my
students. Once you have clicked on a link within the encyclopedia to the right
of the page there are external links that will allow you to dive deeper into
whatever content you are exploring.
In my classroom I would use this to
have students complete standard 4 in civics that reads as “Describe structures
of state and local governments in the United States, including major Alabama
offices and officeholders”. I would have students use the resource to look up
the roles of the governor of Alabama. Then I would have them use the external
links to pick either the current governor or an old governor and research
whether or not they fulfilled those roles and policies that they enacted as
governor. This resource would make a great addition to the civics and geography
classroom but I could see it being used with different contents and grade
levels of social studies.
I am so excited to learn about this database! I grew up using encyclopedias, and although they seem to be a thng of the past, I have always introduced my classroom set to my students. To me, there is nothing like searching through an encyclopedia to find information. I am teaching summer camp this summer and this week we are learning about the state of Alabama. I am going to use this tool tomorrow with my students to show them the Alabama facts page. Thank you so much for sharing.
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