FCPL Curated Content: Teen Events and Resources: Research Help

Research Help

The library provides a lot of research help for you, whether for school work or personal curiosity. We have thousands of books about many topics in our branches and online. We also offer databases, research tools and homework help. You will find links to those resources on the Homework Resources and Databases page.

The links posted on this page are outside resources that we think you will enjoy. You'll have so much fun, you won't even know that you're learning!

Entertaining & Educational Websites

Project Noah
Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Learn.Genetics
An online learning lab from the University of Utah.
Code Combat
CodeCombat is a platform for students to learn computer science while playing through a real game.
Code.org
Code.org® is a non-profit dedicated to expanding access to computer science and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more.
Exploratorium
Our mission is to create inquiry-based experiences that transform learning worldwide. Our vision is a world where people think for themselves and can confidently ask questions, question answers, and understand the world around them.
Museum of Science + Industry Chicago
Experience blended learning with virtual tours and educational games that use multiple subjects to teach you new things.
NOVA
Award-winning science reporting both online and in classrooms, producing an extensive list of resources and original content—including short-form videos, science and education blogs.
How Stuff Works
An award-winning source of unbiased, reliable, easy-to-understand answers and explanations of how the world actually works.
SketchUp
SketchUp is 3D modeling software that's easy to learn and incredibly fun to use.

CommonLit
CommonLit delivers high-quality, free instructional materials to support literacy development for students in grades 5-12.
Purdue OWL
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue.
NoRedInk
NoRedInk builds stronger writers through interest-based curriculum, adaptive exercises, and actionable data.
Idiom Site
Explanations for common expressions.

ESOL Courses
Free online English courses.
Activities for ESL Students
Quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language (ESL).
Lanternfish
Printable teaching resources for language arts, TESOL, TEFL and ESL.
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
Listed to everyday conversations with adult and children's voices.
Mango Languages
Language-learning resources help patrons, students, employees, and individuals learn 60+ languages online and on-the-go.
Using English
A general English language site specializing in English as a Second Language (ESL) with a large collection of tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics, covering the full spectrum of ESL, EFL, ESOL, and EAP subject areas.
Idiom Site
A list of common idioms and their meanings.

Mango Languages
Language-learning resources help patrons, students, employees, and individuals learn 60+ languages online and on-the-go.
Learn a Language
Hundreds of free language-learning lessons, games and activities.
Open Culture
Find thousands of free online courses, audio books, textbooks, eBooks, language lessons, movies and more.
Surface Languages
Learn the basics of many languages: useful phrases, greetings, numbers, colors and sentences.
Internet Polyglot
Free resources and community for learning English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Russian, Dutch, Japanese, Hindi and other languages online.
Streema
Listen to free online radio stations from all over the world.
EdX
Access 1600 free online courses from 100+ leading institutions including Harvard, MIT, Microsoft and more.
HiNative
HiNative is a global Q&A platform where you can ask people from all over the world questions about language and culture.
Omniglot
A guide to alphabets and languages, with useful foreign phrases, tips on learning languages, language-related links, multilingual texts and much more.

Big History Project
An idea that arose from a desire to go beyond specialized and self-contained fields of study to grasp history as a whole. This growing, multi-disciplinary approach is focused on high school students, yet designed for anyone seeking answers to the big questions about the history of our Universe.
Google Earth
Explore the far reaches of the world, right in your browser.
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. It offers satellite imagery, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets, real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle or public transportation.
Geoguessr
Embark on a journey that takes you all over the world. From the most desolate roads in Australia to the busy, bustling streets of New York City.
Geocaching
Join the world's largest treasure hunt.
Historypin
A digital, user-generated archive of historical photos, videos, audio recordings and personal recollections. Users are able to use the location and date of their content to "pin" it to Google Maps.

ArtsEdge
The Kennedy Center's free digital learning platform for arts education. Resources include lesson plans, guides, audio stories, video clips, and interactives-- support K-12 teaching and learning in the arts in the classroom, at home and beyond.