Pierce County Library System offers help for students

As students return to remote learning, and parents take on the role of teacher, many are looking for extra help. The Pierce County Library System’s Tools for Students, http://tools.pcls.us, provides free online resources that can help, including access to live tutors.

Tools for Students are a collection of resources with in-depth research tools, biographies, science experiments, world language help and more. Access to these resources is free with a Pierce County library card, www.piercecountylibrary.org/ecard.aspx?id=1502, which residents in the Library System’s service area can get online and start using immediately.

Tools for Students include access to:

Homework Help: Speak with professional real-time, online tutors and get expert help on essays to calculus.

Research Rocket: Articles from familiar children’s magazines and news sources. Search by topic and reading level.

Gale Biography in Context: Review brief biographies with links to articles in newspapers, magazines and websites.

Culture Grams: Explore the cultures of hundreds of countries, provinces and states, including famous people and recipes.

Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context: Compare opinions, articles and reference materials about controversial topics.

Science Online from Infobase: Discover experiments, videos, biographies and science research.

Pronunciator: Learn more than 160 languages.

SIRS Discoverer: Access research for middle and elementary school students incorporating articles from 1,400+ publications and selected topic websites.

Booklists: Improve student-reading levels for every grade with accelerated reader lists — many books are available online, downloads.pcls.us, or at the library’s curbside service.

Science to Go backpacks: STEAM books and activities for grades K-5 in backpacks picked up at the library’s curbside service.

The Pierce County Library also offers additional educational resources, students.pcls.us, for children and teens, as well as librarian-created videos and virtual classes and events.