LibGuides: US 10th Grade Research Project: STAGE 1: Choose Artifact

WHAT TO DO

IDENTIFY artifacts.

Select three artifacts (poem, short story, play, film, speech, song, painting, building or other item that relates to a significant cultural or historic theme in America) to explore. You will conference with your teacher for guidance, and you must get parental approval for your chosen artifact.

Final artifact choice is due April 15.

WHERE TO START

EXPLORE your options.

Before selecting your final artifact, you should do some preliminary research. This is important for a few reasons:

You may discover something about an artifact that surprises or interests you
You will be able to see the range of sources available:
- Are they too few results? Too many?
- Are your results from reputable resources?
You can get accustomed to searching before having to start your deep research

Library Resources

PDS provides access to various databases that can help your initial research. Start by exploring some tertiary sources in the databases below to see what kind of information is available about topics that interest you.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
This is our collection reference e-books, the majority of which qualify as tertiary sources.
ABC-CLIO American History
ABC-CLIO offers a well-organized selection of reference articles and bibliographies, easily browsed by time period.
Infobase
Infobase offers a variety of databases pertaining to history, science, and literature. Though Infobase includes many primary source documents, most of the sources on the site qualify as tertiary sources including, encyclopedic/biographical articles, timelines, slideshows, maps, etc.
Literary Reference Center
This database from EBSCO provide information regarding works of literature and authors. This is an excellent starting point if your artifact exists in the literary world.
Britannica School
Quick facts and background information on a wide variety of topics from Encyclopædia Britannica.
PDS eSubscription Login Credentials
Usernames and passwords for home access to our online subscriptions

Additional Sources

You may use additional sources for your project, such as webpages. However, it is important to evaluate these sources before deciding whether or not to use them to guide your decision. Think critically about the sites you see: What types of authors and/or organizations are responsible for publishing the information? Does the information exist in other places? How current is the source? How relevant is it to your topic?