Microsoft Copilot (includes DALL-E3): Copilot is a conversational AI developed by Microsoft that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT. we have an account through SH. Just open the link when you’re logged into your SH Google account. Your privacy is more secure here than with ChatGPT.
SciSpace: a research “copilot”, which helps you to read and understand scientific papers and mathematics. There is a Chrome extension for this too. I cannot vouch for how well this does this, however.
Elicit: this is an advanced research assistant, more suitable for older high school students.
It does more than just find you research articles. See here for all the research tasks with which it can assist your research process.
Note for research articles - it cannot give you the full article to anything behind a paywall. Much of its free materials is e.g. older. So, copy and paste the titles of any promising articles into our PAID databases on the library website.
Presentations, Quizzes etc.
Curipod: Creates slides along with polls, word clouds, drawings, and open questions.
Diffit: adjust the reading level of an article or website so it is more understandable for you.
Data Analysis
ChatGPT and Google Gemini are both able to analyze datasets in different ways, including providing viduals. Always double check the work though, as they make mistakes.
Copilot in Excel is AI that can help you analyze data as well.
Constellate: Teach, learn, and perform text analysis with scholarly and primary source content
There are multiple other data analysis tools available, but most come at a cost. They often provide free trials, however.
In Google, enter a keyword, then site:.extension into the search bar. The extensions used below take you to mostly academic/university websites (note that not all .edu sites are truly academic):
e.g. astrolabe invention site:.ac.uk
e.g. islamic inventions site:.mcgill.ca
e.g.”tin glazing” invention site:.edu
Use this same technique to find resources from the perspective of specific countries:
From universities in China: e.g. Zhang Zeduan site:edu.cn
From Chinese government websites: e.g. Huizong song emperor site:gov.cn
Canoe Kids digital magazines celebrate the differences and similarities among Indigenous cultures.
Global Storybooks Project: Indigenous Storybooks "This project aims to make the text, images, and audio of stories available in Indigenous languages as well as English, French, and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada." (NOT complete)
FYI - Footnoting Information: we use MLA which does not use footnotes/endnotes for referencing. The IB would like you to avoid using footnotes for comments/to get around word counts.
Both fiction and nonfiction books on sports and outdoor adventures (or physical activity of any kind - battling zombies, for instance?): just ask your friendly library staff.
Try our databases for magazine and journal articles (the latter is especially good for sports science).
Brainpop: the human body and social emotional learning (includes e.g. sports and fitness resources)
See our various video streaming services e.g. Learn360 - see how to narrow searches below:
FOR MORE NARROW SEARCHES, SEE THESE DATABASES AND INTERFACES:
Canada in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on a broad range of Canadian topics, people, places, and events.
Gale Points to the Past: (broad search) primary source documents free for all British Columbians.
Global Issues in Context: Global Issues in Context offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events. Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of specially selected, highly relevant sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues.
The leading source of British Columbia information, click here to learn more.
The Encyclopedia of British Columbia is the definitive reference work on British Columbia. With more than 4,000 entries and 1,500 accompanying photographs, maps, charts and tables, as well as sound and video clips, The EBC is the source of readable and authoritative information on all the significant British Columbian people, places and things.
The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia is an indispensable companion and an essential reference for anyone interested in British Columbia history. Read details of the intriguing stories behind more than 5,000 BC coast places: who bestowed the names and why, and what they reveal.
Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: The most comprehensive collection of photographs of Pacific Northwest marine life ever published, with more than 1,400 saltwater plants and animals and 1,700 superb photographs. A must-have resource for serious biologists, scuba divers, beachcombers and anyone interested in marine life and beautiful underwater photography.
Raincoast Chronicles 20: Lilies and Fireweed: Frontier Women of British Columbia: From fearless immigrants to indigenous women in the workforce, award-winning journalist Stephen Hume unmasks the stories of British Columbia’s Frontier Women. Abounding with historical photographs and rare glimpses into the daring, and often difficult, lives of pioneering women, Lilies and Fireweed reveals the voices and hands of women who helped shape and build British Columbia.
Far West: The Story of British Columbia: British Columbia’s colourful story has been told many times, but until now no one has attempted to relate the chronicle specifically for young readers. From the gold rush to the Gumboot Navy and from “bride ships” to W.A.C. Bennett, BC history comes alive in this highly illustrated and vivid account by award-winning writer and historian Daniel Francis.
From the West Coast to the Western Front: British Columbians and the Great War: It has often been observed that the First World War jolted Canada into nationhood, and as Mark Forsythe and Greg Dickson show in this compelling book, no province participated more eagerly in that transformation or felt the aftershock more harshly than British Columbia.
Tofino and Clayoquot Sound: A History: Tofino and Clayoquot Sound delves into all facets of geographically and culturally rich land's history, bringing to life the chronicle that started with the dramatic upheavals of geological formation and continues to the present day.
The Sea Among Us: The Amazing Strait of Georgia: The Strait of Georgia is one of the world’s great inland seas, a 6,515 square kilometre body of water lying between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island. Rich in history, teeming with wildlife and marine traffic, the waterway is essential to British Columbians for food, jobs, travel and recreation.
Pacific Seaweeds: Updated and Expanded Edition: This updated and expanded guide is the authoritative guide to over 100 common species of seaweeds in the Pacific Northwest. From species identification and seaweed biology to the essential roles seaweed plays in the marine ecosystem and our everyday lives, Pacific Seaweeds thoroughly documents every aspect of seaweed life.
Elicit: this is an advanced research assistant, more suitable for older high school students.
It does more than just find you research articles. See here for all the research tasks with which it can assist your research process.
Note for research articles - it cannot give you the full article to anything behind a paywall. Much of its free materials is e.g. older. So, copy and paste the titles of any promising articles into our PAID databases on the library website.
DO NOT RELY on Google Scholar. It can provide some good resources, but BEWARE:
Articles freely available via Google Scholar are often too old to be useful.
Many other good sources are behind a journal paywall (you might then be able to find those articles on one of our database providers). There is a reason why many of the best sources are not free.
You cannot search for peer-reviewed only articles on Google Scholar.
There is less vetting/quality control as to what gets included on Google Scholar than is the case with a paid database.
Check in with Ms. Morozov for how best to use Google Scholar.
These tools will find legally free versions of research papers if you cannot find the same version on our library databases:
Open Access Button allows you to search for free versions from any browser.
And...
ResearchGate: where researchers share their work. You'll need to create a free account.
Full Text Reports: "A top-tier research professional's hand-picked selection of documents from academe, corporations, government agencies, interest groups, NGOs, professional societies, research institutes, think tanks, trade associations, and more."
Please note, your subscription offers two separate levels of access, one for students and one for educators.
Students can access more than 6,000 films and other media simply by going to NFB.ca while using any school computer for which an IP address has been provided. Additionally, students have access to playlists and chapters, created and shared by an educator, while using any computer at home or school.
Educators can access everything that students do, as well as all the tools and resources that make CAMPUS unique. To get access to these features, you will need to activate your individual TEACHER account here.
To learn more about the features offered by CAMPUS, watch the video tutorials found here.
National Geographic Kids Targeted toward ages 6-14. National Geographic Kids will take students on amazing adventures in science, nature, culture, archaeology, and space.
Access Learning Over 4,500 videos and 20,000 video clips addressing K-12 topics and applications to the real world.
Kanopy
Students - some public library systems in the Lower Mainland will allow you access to Kanopy with your library card. NOTE TO TEACHERS: Kanopy cannot be used for public performance. e.g.
UBC: TheLibrary We have UBC community library cards that can be checked out like a book: see Ms. Morozov to get one. University librarians usually specialize in certain subjects: here is the UBC librarian directory if you're looking for expertise.
Global Storybooks includes Indigenous Storybooks "This project aims to make the text, images, and audio of stories available in Indigenous languages as well as English, French, and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada." (not complete)
Free ebook and audiobook options (some only available free temporarily for COVID-19 school closures)
Public Libraries have lots of e-book and audiobook options. You'll need your library card and PIN number (usually the last four digits of your phone number). Here's the link to digital books at Vancouver libraries and Burnaby libraries.
Games stay on campus, but should be checked out (like our books, these have Stratford Hall barcodes)
Join the Library Club if you'd like to play at lunch (Fridays - Grades 6 - 7, Thursdays for Senior School).
Don't have enough time to finish a game? Take photographs of where you are in your game play. We can also set aside a game you have going if you plan on coming back to it soon.
Library/Learning Commons Student Information Newsletter: Information on books and resources in our collection, and on learning and living, from Ms. Morozov, Senior School teacher-librarian.
*Currently archived, but if any library club members are wanting to get it up and running again, please let me know.
“tracking voices of protest” - sourced and curated resources from across the web.
LibriVox Free public domain audiobooks in various languages! Volunteer to record a book.
Do Something For “moving beyond hashtag activism”. There are some really great ideas here - choose the type of cause in which you are interested, how much time you have, and the type of action you’d like to take.
Develop an understanding of issues and other people's perspectives. Note these book lists are not comprehensive - we add to them as we find them in our library:
*See the Artficial Intelligence section in the subject guides for more/the most up-to-date.
Be a Detective:
Wayback Machine: see what a website looked like in the past with this Internet archive
Politwoops: an archive of deleted politicians' tweets, from around the world. *Note - due to changes made to Twitter after Musk's purchase, Politwoops is unable to currently track these deleted tweets, but is working to restore this function. In the meantime, you can still look at past collections.
A variety of fact checking tools can be found on the Credibility Coalition's CredCatalogue. I cannot guarantee how good all of these tools are, however.
Tin Eye and Google Reverse Image Search for computer or phone. Use these tools to: - figure out who is the artist of a painting on the wall in a photo of a living room - determine the authenticity of a photograph - critique infographics (many are exaggerated)
YouTube DataViewer (Amnesty International): extracts thumbnails from YouTube clips to help find original video source. *Glitching at the moment.
Openlinkprofiler.org: use this site to see which other websites link to the website you're trying to evaluate. Needs an account, but there are various other SEO backlink profilers available online.
Future of Media Project (Harvard University): media ownership and political donations - U.S. and Canadian media.
Politifact: specializes in rating the truthfulness of reporting on politics and government
Poynter: evidence-based fact-checking in journalism, journalism tools
FactCheck.org: a project of the University of Pennsylvania. Heavily U.S.-politics oriented, but also looks at science and Facebook rumours etc.
Media Bias/Fact Check: Recommended and used by various universities as well as news outlets. Great way to check the bias/leanings of news sources from around the world, and current events stories (albeit largely U.S.-focused)
Your teachers will either have you create your own account on the Turnitin website, and sign up for their courses, or you will submit your work to Turnitin via ManageBac.
This infographic from Turnitin has useful information and examples for you.
You can see your Turnitin score from your ManageBac DropBox view, but to see the breakdown of your Turnitin results, you must do the following:
Navigate (in student view) to Home > Task & Deadlines > the corresponding task > Feedback Studio.
We acknowledge we are situated on the traditional and unceded territory of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh).