Government Resources

IMAGES: Generated by Bing Image Creator, https://www.bing.com/images/create, prompt: "young students conducting science experiments". Notice how the experiment has gone awry as the student now has a microscope for a hand. Can you find the other strange science things going on?

Did you know that the government provides vast information, lesson plans, virtual tours, and more for educators and students at no cost? Say, what?!

What is a Government Resource?

Government resources encompass data-driven information, public information services, public well-being services, archives, grants, department / agency information, and laws / regulations including educational state standards.

Why are they Useful?

As a school library media specialist, having access to classroom criteria provides me with information on how I could collaborate with classroom teachers, what materials should be included in the school library catalog, and what subjects students might be researching in order to provide them with relevant resources beyond the physical catalog. Government resources are also budget friendly, usually provided for free without copyright stipulations, meaning its information can be disseminated widely without payment. Government resources are also multifaceted, meaning they are not for a single purpose. A single government resource can offer data-driven information, public information, archives, grants, department / agency information, and education resources which makes it usable for different aspects of student services provided by the library.

How Can You Evaluate a Government Resource?

As with any resource, you must evaluate it first before you can use it. I created my own evaluation criteria of government resources called B.L.A.R.G.S. Feel free to use B.L.A.R.G.S. yourself!

• Bias (Who is writing it? Why are they writing it?)
• Links (Do links work or is the site no longer maintained?)
• Age (How old is the website? How old is the content? When was it last updated?)
• Relevance (Does it connect to classroom content?)
• Grade (Is the content grade appropriate for reading levels and comprehension?)
• Sources (What is the information based on and where does the information come from? Is it accurate, reputable, and / or peer-reviewed?)

Want some government resources to test it out on? Peruse my 5 Government Resources for Your Classroom blog post!