Presidents Database

"Presidents Database"

Beth, H. (1998). The database: America's presidents. Learning and Leading with technology, 25(7), 6-11.

A database project like this seems like it would fit the best with a science class. For example a chemistry class could make a database with the most common elements of the periodic table the students researching a few elements each. The categories that I would use would be things like name (abbreviation and common), atomic number, atomic mass, most common form (gas, liquid, or solid), date discovered, are some isotopes radioactive, and some common uses of the element. I think that this would be a good way for the students to get familiar with the elements that they will be using all through the course to solve problems.

Some of the drawbacks to this kind of database project is that I would need to make some assignments for the students so that they have to become familiar with all of the elements and not just the ones that they themselves researched, because in the end they need to know them all. Another tough thing about a project like this is making sure that all of the students have access to computers in order to do their research because I wouldn’t want to dedicate an entire class to it in a computer lab.