Spence School Library: 2024-2025: Independent Science Research: Background & Topic Development

Databases for Background Research

Databases

Gale in Context: Science This link opens in a new window
RECOMMENDED!! This resource offers extensive information for many scientific disciplines, coming the form of topic overviews, biographies, periodical articles from Science Weekly, Science News and The Science Teacher.

Websites

New York Times Science Section
Students have full access to the New York Times using a school-provided account. Email Ms. Kane if you have not set yours up.
Science News
"Magazine of the society for science and the public" To access full text email Ms. Kane for the log-in information or use the ProQuest Complete database.
Science Daily
Updated several times a day the site covers discoveries in all fields of the physical, biological, earth and applied sciences. Stories are integrated with photographs and illustrations, links to journals and academic studies, related research and topics, encyclopedia articles, and videos.
New Scientist
Founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”,
Scientific American
Website of Scientific American, to get full-text access to older articles, search the database ProQuest Student.

Subject Specific Databases

Oxford Research Encyclopedias This link opens in a new window
Expand research on foundational topics, all written, peer-reviewed and continuously updated by leading scholars. Environmental Science, Physics, Global Public Health, Neuroscience, Planetary Science, Climate Science

ProQuest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
A wide selection of authoritative, scholarly electronic books available through a easy to use platform with a variety of online and offline reading options.

In the beginning cast a wide net and explore a variety of topics you are interested in.

No topic Ideas? Read popular science literature such as Science News, New Scientist, Scientific American, Psychology Today, etc.

Write down key concepts, places, people, and descriptions of your topic as you read.