Research Tools for Kids

Note: See "*" for grade level. Ratings based on usability, not content.

Biography Resource Center

Find biographical information from 100s of sources! Search by name or by other facts like a birthplace, death place, home country, ethnicity, job, or even by gender.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Britannica Encyclopedia for Kids

Includes an online encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus and even a world atlas! Have some fun with the interactive learning games. Get help with step-by-step research and study guides. Check out 1000s of pics, videos, and statistics on countries and states.

*Recommended for 3rd grade and older. Younger children may need help.
CAMIO

Want to get so close to a Picasso painting that you can see the brush strokes? You can with CAMIO, an online collection showing works of art from around the world currently found in museums. It includes prints, photographs, sculpture, paintings, drawings, costumes, jewelry, fabric art, and architecture. You can even select a musuem and look through the different works of art that they've scanned to put online.

*Recommended for 3rd grade and older. Younger children may need help.
Discovering Collection

Tons of biographies! Find out information on your favorite author or what people are saying about your favorite book. Do a specific search for whatever you're researching or browse through what you're interested in, such as culture, science, geography, literature, or U.S. or World history.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
General Science Collection

Like science? This is the place for you! Get the latest info on what's going on in the world of science. What are the experts in biology, geography, engineering and other areas talking about? Find out here.

*Recommended for high school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Kids InfoBits

Have a paper to write? Check out Kids Infobits for your chosen topic. You can find information in encyclopedias, magazines, and recent news.

Doing a report on the skeletal system? With Kids Infobits you can look up a picture of the bones in a skeleton, find out how many bones are in the human body in an encyclopedia, find out how bones help us move from a magazine article, and find out whether being a vegetarian affects your bones as reported in a newspaper. What do you want to find out?

*Recommended for elementary school students. Younger children may need help.
InfoTrac Junior

Find all sorts of information for research projects for elementary students up through high school.

Do you have to do an assignment to find out about a chemical element? With InfoTrac Junior, you can find general information about the element iron (Fe), find out how iron has been used in the world dating all the way back to the Iron Age, find out what an "iron lung" is and why it was used, and find out why our bodies need iron, all by typing in the word "iron" and hitting the Search button. Don't forget to look at the Multimedia tab after you get your search results. That's where you'll find historic photos, charts and more.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
InfoTrac - Student Edition

Want even more detailed information than what you found in InfoTrac Junior or the Junior Reference Collection? Try InfoTrac Student Edition on for size. Search 100s of academic journals, magazines and newspapers to find out the latest and greatest research and news of our world.

*Recommended for high school students, college-level research, and general curiosity.
Junior Reference Collection

Another great resource for finding out all the information you need for your research paper or just for fun!

Want to find out more about World War I? Click on the link, "World War I, 1914 - 1918" under the list of popular topics on the right-hand side of the search box. You'll find articles and documents that tell you what started the war. You can learn about Woodrow Wilson, U.S. President during the war, and his decision to enter the U.S. into the war. Find out about how airplane technology changed the way the war was fought. And learn about how the U.S. funded its efforts in the war with Liberty Bonds.

Have something else you want to look up? Do a search and see what comes up.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Kids Search

Trying to get your Astronomy Badge in Boy Scouts? Try using Kids Search. Do a search for the constellation Orion. You can find out the different stars that make up the constellation, find out about the Orion Nebula, and learn about the myth behind the constellation.

*Recommended for elementary school students. Younger children may need help.
Learn-a-Test (Learning Express Library)

Want a little practice for your MCAs, SATs, ACTs and more? Learn-a-Test is the site for you. Here you can find practice tests in Math, Science, English and more for elementary school students through college.
MAS Ultra - School Edition

Gotta do a science experiment? Do a search on MAS Ultra. Find out how to make a Roman catapult. Read about a group of people that lived in a biosphere. Learn about edible foam. All these and more could make for a great science experiment. What's your topic? Search for it in MAS Ultra.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Middle Search Plus

Want to know more about famous inventors? Do a search on Middle Search Plus and find out about well-known inventors like Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Archimedes, Guglielmo Marconi and more. What did they do? Find out on Middle Search Plus.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Novelist Plus

What should I read next? Do you know of any books that are just like my favorite? I heard about this book that had a skateboarder in it who was on a plane that got hijacked, but I can't remember what it was called... All of these questions and more can be answered with Novelist Plus.

*Recommended for 3rd grade and older. Younger children may need help.
Points of View Reference Center

Have an assignment where you have to write about opposing viewpoints on a controversial topic? Points of View Reference Center can help. It presents a "Point" and "Counterpoint" for all sorts of controversial topics and also includes magazine articles, newspaper articles, radio and TV news transcripts, photos and more to give you both sides of the story.

*Recommended for middle school students and older.
Primary Search

Want to learn more about ancient Greek and Roman civilizations? Type it in for a search in Primary Search and find out about daily life in ancient Rome, find out what was so cool about Etruscan art, and find out what exactly was the big deal about bathing for ancient Greeks. Want to find out more? Try it out!

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Science Reference Center

Want to know what's going on in the life of a honeybee? Do a search in Science Reference Center and find out the latest news and information about how bees dance to communicate, the basics of beekeeping, and what goes on in the hive. Interested in something else science-related? Give Science Reference Center a try and see what YOU can find out.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
Searchasaurus

Click on the picture that goes with the subject you want to search or put in the words for your search. One of the cool things about Searchasaurus is that you can look up animals in the Encyclopedia of Animals. Find out about whale sharks, Tasmanian devils, and more! Then see what people are saying about them in magazines and books and check out cool pics.

*Recommended for elementary school students. Younger children may need help.
Student Resource Center Gold

Have an assignment to find out information on a particular country? Try searching for it in Student Resource Center Gold. Searching for a country brings up general information on that country, videos in which it has been recently mentioned in television news, photos taken in the country, any recent articles in popular newspapers, playable audio for recent radio news stories, encyclopedia references, recent magazine articles, and more.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.
World Almanac Book of Facts

Need an encyclopedia citation for that research paper? Check out the World Almanac Book of Facts without having to lug around a big, heavy encyclopedia volume.

*Recommended for middle school students and older. Younger students may need help.

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Research Tools for Kids