Science Databases Under the Microscope
Once again, one size doesn’t fit all
By Shonda Brisco -- School Library Journal, 11/1/2006
Let’s face it, no one database can possibly provide all the resources needed by every student or teacher at every level. This is especially true of science databases. While many offer exceptional resources, including video clips, audio files, full-text journals, unique search capabilities, or interactive components, one important feature requested by science teachers is often missing from most science databases: a PDF version of original articles.
Because many science teachers read journals that contain specific scientific diagrams, photographs, or illustrations to explain the text, these teachers want to provide those resources to their students for research. As more libraries move toward online sources, it becomes even more important that librarians check a database’s publication holdings to see which journals provide PDF or other specific formats needed by science teachers and their students.
Access ScienceMcGraw-Hill
www.accessscience.com Grades 9–12+
Cost Yearly subscription is based on enrollment. For schools with an enrollment of 500 or less, the price is $795; for 501-2,000, the price is $995; and for schools between 2,001- 4,000, it’s $1,795.
The Big Picture Access Science provides high school students with a wealth of notable materials taken from the McGraw-Hill print collection. It includes full-text search capabilities of the ninth edition of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology; new trends and developments in science and technology from the McGraw-Hill Yearbooks of Science and Technology; access to 110,000 definitions from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms; biographies of scientists; late-breaking science and technology news; bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citations; links to evaluated related Web sites; learning resources and study guides; additional illustrations, animations, and image galleries; and a question-and-answer section.
Look & Feel Access Science has a distinctive resource-filled front page, which provides a healthy list of possible research options. While the program promotes itself as an online encyclopedia, in reality, it is much more. It provides various categories of research options and categorizes them into sections that can be easily distinguished for quick use.
The front page includes two search boxes for quick access to the Encyclopedia or the Dictionary. The “Resources” section contains hyperlinks to the “Biographies” page, the “Student Center,” “Image Gallery,” “Image of the Week,” and finally, “Related Web Sites.” Searchable science topics are listed under “Choose a Topic” and below are recent science news articles (in this case, Pluto) with extended research options, as well as a link to the “AP Chemistry Study Guide” page. “Headline News” details the latest findings within the various fields of science.
How it Works Searching the database can be as easy as typing a term in the search box. A basic search will yield all Encyclopedia articles plus the biographies and “News Archives.” An advanced search will provide users with the ability to add Boolean search terms and limiters, as well as relate the search to a specific field in science. For example, a search for “stem cell research” AND “humans” allowed the option to select all areas of science or just specific areas such as medicine. By choosing medicine, this search resulted in 102 entries within 94 documents: 38 were Encyclopedia articles, 28 were “Research Updates,” and 36 were “News Articles.” Each of the news articles included “Reference Sources,” “Further Reading Sources,” and “Further Study” links.
Access Science also provides a Student Center, which includes “Essay Topics” from “Agriculture” to “Veterinary Science.” Each topic link provides a page of subtopics that then link to full-length background information. “Topical Study Guides” are available, while “Study Guides for Advanced Placement” (AP) provide reference sources, practice tests, and additional readings.
For Students & Teachers Access Science completely envelops users with the elements of science. Along with images, news articles, encyclopedia references, and specially selected Web sites, this database is a great companion to any science textbook or science program. Teachers and librarians will appreciate the content quality, as well as the recommended resources that extend beyond the database—which students are unlikely to find on their own. An “Image Gallery” provides users with video clips, PowerPoint programs, and even primary source materials. With these resources, as well as hyperlinked keywords, the database expands any research assignment into an exciting interactive project.
Report Card Access Science is a wonderful extension to the classroom and a unique database for those library programs that need to cater to the specific needs of the science classroom. For its ability to expose high school students to every area of science and make it both educational and entertaining, Access Science gets an A.
eLibrary ScienceProQuest www.proquestk12.com
Grades 6–12+
Cost The yearly subscription price for school libraries is $1,495.
The Big Picture If it’s been a while since you’ve seen an eLibrary product, then take another look. In 2005, ProQuest created a new science database called eLibrary Science that’s definitely worthy of attention.
Through a recent partnership with reference publisher Salem Press, eLibrary Science provides more than 20 of Salem’s reference titles, such as Animal Life and Plant Life from the Magill’s Encyclopedia of Science program, science-related titles from the Great Events in History series, the Encyclopedia of Genetics, and over 400 other science publications.
Students, teachers, and librarians will find updated science news links, information about famous scientists, a “Today in Science History” feature, hundreds of educator-approved Web sites from Homework Central, dozens of model BookCarts of durable links, and other features. To support both the regular and AP science courses, eLibrary Science offers a balance that many school librarians may find appealing.
Look & Feel The cartoonlike home page, may turn off some high school students. But once they begin to investigate the contents, they will quickly realize its value.
eLibrary Science accommodates searching using natural language, Boolean, or keyword terminology. An advanced search lets you search by date, document title, reading level (grade or Lexile), publication, author name, or by state or national standards. Index tabs guide the user to search by topic, to review reference works within the database, or to actively participate in the interactive science page. Through a partnership with ExploreLearning, which produces Quizmo’s, eLibrary Science offers several interactive features, including the opportunity to dissect a frog virtually or interact with each element within the Periodic Table.
Students can create temporary lists in a “My List” area, while teachers and librarians can devise BookCarts of links and other resources. Too busy? eLibrary Science supplies model BookCarts.
How it Works The “Topic Search” area allows users to experience the full depth of this resource. Select the “Topic Search” tab to reveal the Topic Search Tree page, which lists a variety of options for those unsure of how to develop a search string or who might be undecided in a topic for research.
Among some of the in-depth resources within the Topic Tree page are: “Earth Science,” “Health Sciences,” “Science Projects,” “Science in the World,” and “Technology.” Within each are sublinks to resource information. Teachers may also search the State and National Standards link to access individual state standards or review the National Science Education Standards.
I conducted a natural language search for “global warming” and discovered that there were 1,228 possible sources with the top 248 listed by the database. Among those top choices were 189 magazines, 10 books, 18 pictures, 10 audios/videos, and 21 transcripts from television or radio.
While the variety of media formats and choices may overwhelm those more accustomed to standard print-only databases, the majority of students and teachers who participated in reviewing the database at my school were excited about the wealth of resource options that eLibrary Science provided.
For Students & Teachers Educators who use course packs or reserved readings for students will save time and paper with BookCarts, which make it easy to research and post articles, Web sites, or topics to share with students, parents, and teachers.
For students, ExploreLearning, Gizmo’s interactive component of eLibrary Science, adds a bit of visual stimulation and fun. With this component and the variety of audio and video clips, this database has a “wow factor” that won’t go unnoticed by librarians or teachers who often struggle to get students to use databases.
Report Card Boasting the content and depth to meet the needs of most middle and high school science programs, eLibrary Science receives an A. However, for many high school users, the front-page style looks far too young—this could jeopardize usage. If given an updated look, this database will receive the respect it deserves.
New Book of Popular ScienceGrolier Online Scholastic Library Publishing go.grolier.com
Grades 6–12
Cost A yearly subscription price for school libraries starts at $398 and is based on enrollment, as well as subsequent databases purchases.
The Big Picture Grolier’s New Book of Popular Science has moved from the reference shelf to the computer screen in a big way. Since 1924, the New Book of Popular Science has been one of the leading science reference sources for students; the online version provides some of the same features that users have come to expect from the print edition, but with 21st-century style.
With over 400 articles, 600 photographs, and 660 illustrations, the New Book of Popular Science Online continues to provide accessible information on science, medicine, and technology for students in grades four through 12. One unique feature is that the database is available in two versions: one graphical, the other text-only. Students may switch instantly from one version to the other by clicking on the “toggle” link. Schools can use the database with adaptive technology that requires text-only formats. For visually impaired students, the database is also ADA compliant.
Look & Feel With a clean design that doesn’t overwhelm, the New Book of Popular Science Online provides a variety of access points and search capabilities on the front page. There’s a “Find It Fast” search bar, and a cascading list of topic selections includes biographies, science projects, fact finders, and a SkyWatch module.
Also located on the home page are other research tools, including the Grolier Online Atlas; a set of seven dictionaries and thesauri from Houghton Mifflin (some include audio pronunciations); and an advanced search.
A list of all the Grolier online databases that users have in their school provides easy access to this content while the “Feature Showcase” offers an interactive learning module. The Help and About buttons are located at the top along with the link to the Grolier Online Passport environment. With Grolier Online Kids and the Grolier Online Passport, both elementary and high school students can utilize the database contents for their specific research needs.
The “Today Is” component highlights birthdays and historical events, while the “News Now” section provides three to four news stories a week for elementary students. “For Teachers” includes lesson plans and other resources.
How It Works Using “Find It Fast,” a student could search the entire encyclopedia online, as well as a collection of magazine articles, Web sites, and media and news stories. Searches may be conducted in single or multiple terms, or multiple terms separated by Boolean operators.
The search results page will default to the encyclopedia article page with relevant tabs on the top. Users can change the view between the encyclopedia article pages to any other result page by selecting one of the other tabs.
You also have the option of using the cascading topic searches, including “Scicopedia” (science categories), “NewsBytes,” “Science Projects,” “Biographies,” “SciZone” (science challenges), “SciFiles” (fact finder),” “SkyWatch,” and “Ask Pop Sci.”
Because the database is largely menu-driven, the options for searching are limited for more sophisticated users. For example, an advanced search for “stem cell research” AND “humans” resulted in 16 documents that picked up the terms “cell” and “human” in the article text only but nothing on “stem cell research in humans.” In “Find It Fast,” a search for “cloning” resulted in 42 documents that included eight biographies of scientists, 14 encyclopedia articles, 11 news articles, and nine related articles. While the articles provided basic information about cloning, the database limits older users from executing advanced searches.
For Students & Teachers For students, the database offers more than just encyclopedia and news articles. It provides dozens of hands-on science projects, biographies of great scientists, and other features that ramp up interest for youngsters.
For teachers, an archive of lesson plans, organized and searchable by grade or subject, helps to implement the database in the classroom. Curriculum standards for each lesson plan correlate to national standards.
Report Card While the New Book of Popular Science Online is aimed at students in grades six through 12, it is much more likely to be used by elementary and middle school students. It provides easy options for students learning how to use databases, but limits more sophisticated searchers. The menu-driven options provide few results for high school research topics, thus offering little more than a starting place for older kids. For elementary and middle school users, this database receives an A, but for high school students, it gets a B-.
ProQuest AP ScienceProQuest www.proquestk12.com.
Grades 10 –12 +
Cost Yearly subscription for school libraries is $2,575.
The Big Picture If you’re looking for higher-level science materials that provide the content and full-text resources for advanced placement students, ProQuest AP Science should meet those needs.
With citations, abstracts, full-text articles, and full-page images, AP Science provides journal coverage from 1971 to the present. It contains more than 500 magazines and scholarly journals to support advanced placement and college-prep level science studies. Disciplines include earth, life, physical, medical, and applied sciences. Coverage is nearly 100 percent full-text from professional and scholarly journals not generally found in high school collections. A deep backfile allows students to search for information relating to AP or college science coursework without going to a university library. In addition to the full-text and full-image content, students can create durable links for presentations.
Look & Feel With a sleek, collegiate look, AP Science is also easy to use. With five search tabs at the top of the page (Basic, Advanced, Topics, Publications, and My Research) the user can easily navigate the database.
AP Science defaults to the basic search page, where you can include a date range, as well as limiters such as full text only and scholarly journals. A Tool section offers “Search Tips,” as well as the option to browse topics by keyword or an alphabetical list.
With the “Advanced Search,” users can search a combination of citations, abstracts, authors, publications, subjects, keywords, and other fields using Boolean search terms. You can also limit your search by specific date, full-text only or solely scholarly journals.
The publications tab provides over 500 science-related journals, their backlist holdings, and identifies each as full-text or abstract only. It would be good if the lag time before journals are included in the database could be noted; some titles have a six-month to a one-year delay, which could be annoying.
How it Works A basic search for “hydrostatic pressure” resulted in 91 articles within “All Sources.” Of these, 76 were full-text. Additionally, two results boxes appeared at the top of the page to offer “Suggested Topics” and “Suggested Publications” for further research.
With each search, users can “Refine the Search” or “Set up Alerts,” which notifies searchers by e-mail when a related article has been added to the database. Articles can also be translated into one of 10 languages.
For Students & Teachers One of the most useful tools within AP Science is “My Research Summary.” When a marked article is selected, a URL is created within the research summary to allow users to copy and paste the link into a document or create a simple Web page. In this way, teachers and librarians can send links to faculty, parents, or students; show how to build more complex searches; track research; create hyperlinks to required reading or course packs; and more.
Report Card AP Science receives an A+ for its university-level content, access to PDF versions of original articles, and ease of use.
Science OnlineFacts On File www.factsonfile.com
Grades 6–12
Cost The yearly subscription for a school library is $530.
The Big Picture Science Online, just one of many specialized databases offered by Facts On File, represents a comprehensive, authoritative overview of science for students in grades six through 12. With diagrams, experiments, essays, biographies, and definitions organized by topic and subject area, as well as by the National Science Education Standards, Science Online provides users access to a wide range of specialized resources.
Specifically, Science Online offers approximately 2,500 biographies of scientists throughout history; over 6,000 essays on current issues in science and technology; more than 3,300 diagrams; over 600 science experiments indexed by grade level and subject categories; a science timeline organized by historical period or topic; and over 29,000 definitions.
Look & Feel Through easily accessible, colorful pages, Science Online provides a highly visual research experience. Users can quickly launch a search by typing a keyword or phrase in the search box and selecting a specific category of topics: biographies, essays, definitions, diagrams, experiments, timelines, and more. If a specific keyword or subject is not known, users can browse “Content Categories” for subject ideas or use the A-Z index.
The pages do not overwhelm and most offer detailed lists of subjects, articles, or other related materials with hyperlinks to additional information. A hierarchical structure, or “bread crumbs,” heading each search page allows the user to easily identify where they are.
How it Works Taking much of its content from print titles, Science Online contains a virtual e-library of resources, including: the Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate, Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology, Encyclopedia of Chemistry, and others.
Because a search returns only those pages that include all of the search terms, students do not need to use “and” between terms. By default, all content categories are checked, and a search covers the entire database. To restrict a search, a user must include more search terms or uncheck the category boxes listed below the search box. An advanced search is also available.
A search of “stem cell research” resulted in four biographies, 11 essays, and three timeline entries. After selecting the essay entries, a new page of results provided an exact match and 10 related matches. The exact match entry was from the Encyclopedia of Ethics in Science and Technology (2002) and provided a lengthy article with the search terms “stem cell research” highlighted in red throughout. A small box of related diagrams and related essays provided a list of hyperlinks. A bibliography of “Further Information” was provided as well as a complete citation of the article.
For Students & Teachers Students with little or no database experience can easily locate materials in Science Online and store their results in a handy folder within the program.
Teachers and librarians will appreciate the vast number of diagrams and illustrations, as well as the full-text documents. Along with a direct link to the National Science Education Standards, teachers and librarians can easily document within their daily lesson plans how the database can be used to meet the needs of their students.
Report Card This database provides the quality and content that will ensure success in science research. Facts On File’s Science Online deserves an A in the first grading period; With a redesigned Web page and new updates expected by the end of 2006, this database is expected to provide more impressive features and content.
Science Reference CenterEBSCO www.EBSCOhost.com
Grades 6–12
Cost The yearly subscription price for school libraries is $995.
The Big Picture In June, EBSCO released its Science Reference Center to support middle and high school curricula by encompassing all scientific disciplines. The database contains more than 640 full- text titles including science encyclopedias, reference books, and periodicals, as well as biographies, images, and PDF files of original journal articles. With content consisting primarily of scientist biographies, full-text reference titles, and science magazines from around the world, Science Reference Center enters the science database market with some of the most interesting resources.
Subjects include biology, chemistry, earth and space science, environmental science, health and medicine, life science, physics, technology, and wildlife. Lexile reading levels are specified for all information.
Publishers include Crabtree Publishing, Facts On File, Great Neck Publishing, Houghton Mifflin, Lerner Publishing Group, Mason Crest Publishers, Oxford University Press, Scholastic, Weekly Reader, and more.
Look & Feel Science Reference Center is a virtual science reference library online. With a clean, user-friendly home page, this database provides full-text reference books, biographies, and periodicals.
At the top of the front page, users will find four tabs providing search options (Basic, Advanced, and Visual); you can also search by keyword, publication, subject, index, or image. By typing a keyword in the basic search box, students may begin their search or refine it with numerous limiters or expanders.
Through a partnership with Groxis (makers of the visual search program Grokker), EBSCO provides a unique Visual Search component. By entering a keyword or subject term, Grokker creates a visual search “bubble” or map that groups each search result with related topics within smaller circles or squares. The Grokker engine returns the top 250 most relevant articles based on EBSCO’s subject headings and the analysis of the text of each result. Through a visual search, users can see conceptual relationships without having to access an article.
The circles represent categories of results and can include subcategories, while the squares represent links to articles. Click on a square to load an article into the search pane next to the visual map for ease in reviewing.
While visual search engines aren’t new, the use of Grokker within the EBSCO database creates an interesting element for students. When I offered the Grokker option to freshmen and seniors, both groups opted to use the visual search engine over standard text.
How it Works By choosing a general topic such as “planets,” selecting an advanced search, and limiting the search to full-text articles with Lexile levels of 10th grade or above, I received 871 results: 794 were from periodical articles, 63 were from reference sources, 13 were biographies, 29 were images, and one was a science experiment. Limiting the search to only “Scholarly Publications” resulted in 190 articles.
When I used a more exact term, “Pluto,” then added limiters to include full-text and scholarly journals, but eliminated Lexiles, the database returned 52 scholarly articles but none documented the recent demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet. By removing the scholarly journals limiter, there were 453 hits. Most articles were dated within the past three months but some more recent publication titles listed citations only. The database does have a slight delay for the inclusion of some journals. This may not be a serious problem for some users, but check the inclusion dates of those publications you generally need.
For Students & Teachers The most useful features include the ability to search by Lexiles and Benchmarks, allowing educators to guide students to the best possible resources. And Grokker’s Visual Search component captivates. Most users (including teachers) will want to “Grok” this database!
Report Card Although this database may be just finding its way into libraries and science classrooms, it will soon become a top choice. With the option to view full-text journal articles in PDF, this database provides an additional service to teachers. Science Reference Center debuts with an A+.
Science Resource CenterThomson Gale www.galegroup.com
Grades 9–12+
Cost The yearly subscription price for school libraries is approximately $2,500.
The Big Picture Thomson Gale’s Science Resource Center offers students and teachers thousands of topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures, and illustrations, along with the latest scientific developments from over 270 full-text magazines and academic journals with PDF formats available, as well as links to selected science Web sites. The database also offers over 14,800 multimedia formats including pictures, illustrations, audio clips, and video clips.
Science Resource Center covers curriculum-related science topics and offers teachers an easy-to-use tool to identify content directly correlated to state and national standards. In addition, the database reflects curriculum trends and focuses on key concepts taught in school classrooms such as earth science, science history, life science, physical science, science and technology, space, and much more.
With about 58 reference titles, the Science Resource Center provides a healthy dose of digitized print content, including many Gale sources such as the Encyclopedia of Medicine, third edition; Science of Everyday Things; and World of Microbiology and Immunology. Also, the list of scholarly journals is comparable to the holdings of many small colleges.
Look & Feel With the familiar style of its well-known counterpart, Opposing Viewpoints, Science Resource Center provides a clean, crisp, and academic appearance. With various search options, Thomson Gale offers a sleek, impressive database to students, teachers, and librarians seeking additional resources for the science curriculum.
A banner contains the various options within the database such as Help, Toolbox, Dictionary, List of Sources, Timeline, and Mark List. Below are the basic search controls (Advanced Search, Person Search, Publication Search, and the Science Standards).
Topics are listed alphabetically in the content area of the page (much like the Opposing Viewpoints lists), with a Spotlight column, containing brief information on a monthly topic of interest and a Toolbox area, which provides an easy-to-locate area for a timeline, dictionary, or related tools.
Students can begin searching by typing a specific term and choosing subject, keyword, or full-text search, or they can simply choose one of the topics. The results page provides the user with index tabs listed as Reference, Magazines, Academic Journals, Newspapers, Multimedia, and Websites. Each tab is an individual index of materials available on the topic. In addition, each entry is marked with a content- level notation that indicates the level of the subject material contained in the article.
How it Works The Science Resource Center provides a user-friendly interface that basically guides the student to resources. By choosing a subject from the list of topics, students can easily locate materials ranging from general science magazines to academic or scholarly journals.
As an example, I typed in “pseudoscience” as a keyword and located three reference titles, 26 full-text magazine articles, 179 full-text scholarly journals, and 13 newspaper articles. Additional searching provided a list of subjects on the left-hand side of the page which helped me to narrow a search to “UFOs and public opinion.”
For Students & Teachers One of the unique features of the Science Resource Center that teachers will enjoy is the Web-Generator page, which utilizes the “InfoMark.” This tool allows teachers to locate articles within the database and then create durable hyperlinks from within a teacher’s Web page or assignment Web site.
Report Card Science Resource Center deserves an A+ for providing in-depth resources in a format that is user-friendly for both high school and college students.
Today’s ScienceFacts On File News Service facts.com/index.htm
Grades 6–12
Cost The yearly subscription price for school libraries is $295.
The Big Picture Today’s Science provides students with the contents of current and back file editions of Today’s Science On File, a monthly periodical of significant developments in science and technology that draws on major scientific journals, magazines, and newspapers in the U. S. and abroad. As a division of the World Almanac Education Group and the Weekly Reader Corporation, Today’s Science provides students with a database of science materials that is easy to understand and includes detailed background information, useful Internet resources and search terms, and suggestions for further reading.
With weekly updates, Today’s Science connects students with background information, biographies, an embedded glossary, images, indexes, and research aids to help them keep up with the developments in science. It covers topics such as health, the environment, technology, life science, physical science, earth and space science, and science and society. Some of the resources are the World News Digest, Issues and Controversies, and the World Almanac databases.
Using dozens of resources, the editors of Today’s Science include information from American Scientist to Natural History, from New Scientist to Technology Review. The editors also rely on university news releases, conference reports, and government sites.
Look and Feel Today’s Science provides users with various options for searching. Besides the basic search box, students may choose to search within a title and sort the results based upon story date or relevance, or search by specific publication dates. If the library is a subscriber, other facts.com databases can be searched.
Instant menu access to “Science in the Headlines” and “Hot Topic” coverage are available for students to browse and select. A comprehensive subject index and glossary provides assistance with terminology, and for those seeking topic ideas there is “Need a Research Topic.” The database also provides a list of scientific biographies, with listings by field of study, women, African Americans, and Nobel Laureates. An Image Gallery will help students with presentations.
Other unique components include an Interactive Crossword Puzzle taken from Today’s Science; Editorial Cartoons to help students better understand, visually, what is happening in the world; Overview Articles from the World Almanac Encyclopedia; and suggested Internet sites.
For educators, a special content area includes activities and menu access to articles that match the National Science Education Standards.
How It Works By entering keywords or terms in the search box, students may perform a basic search; by adding Boolean operators or wildcards to the terms, students are able to create more sophisticated searches. Students may also search by titles or select other databases within the facts.com suite that may be available. By limiting the search to specific dates, students can create a range of search options and rank those returns by relevance or article date.
Users can search the database through the Cover Story, via Menu Access, or through links in the articles. The Cover Story, which appears on the home page and changes weekly, provides the latest news. Major content areas can be accessed by clicking a selected listing which takes the user to the specific article.
While searching for resources on the topic of “global warming,” I discovered 131 documents dating from 1992 to 2006. Each article contained hyperlinks to additional information, as well as a list of overview topics for preliminary research. While the material provided was easy to read, it was very brief and may be insufficient for in-depth research required by high school science students unless the further reading citations are accessed.
For Students & Teachers Students will like the ease of use and the readable text within Today’s Science. With a variety of search options, as well as hyperlinked keywords within the articles, most students should be able to quickly locate information. Teachers will appreciate the accessibility of both the research topics, as well as the direct connections between the database articles and the National Science Standards. With these direct links, teachers can be assured that their classroom instruction, lesson plans, and database research assignments are directly related to these guidelines.
Report Card Today’s Science, while marketed for students in grades six through 12, appears to be focused on higher elementary and middle school students. Much of the content is based on Today’s Science magazine, which are articles rewritten from more scholarly journals to make them understandable for younger readers.
However, for struggling high school readers, Today’s Science provides quality information in a high-interest-low-vocabulary format. For elementary and middle school students, or struggling high school readers, this database deserves an A; for most high school science research assignments, this database deserves a C+ because it lacks original science journals or research texts.
