The Gale Virtual Reference Library provides access to popular Gale specialized encyclopedias and resources history and biography. You must have a library card to sign in.

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Biography.com

Biography.com captures stories about over 20,000 different subjects.

Encyclopædia Britannica Biographies

Britannica has provided accurate, reliable information for more than 200 years. They commission work from scholars, world leaders, and expert writers. 

Infoplease Biography

A free and authoritative reference which provides short biographies of notable people in a wide array of fields.

The Gale Virtual Reference Library provides access to popular Gale specialized encyclopedias and resources history and biography. You must have a library card to sign in.

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Primary Sources

Archives Grid

ArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more with over 1,000 different archival institutions represented.

Calisphere

Calisphere provides free access to artifacts with a focus on California. Discover over 750,000 photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more. The collections on Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.

Digital Public Library of America

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students explore topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more. 

Internet Archive

A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

National Archives

A Federal agency that preserves U.S. historical documents and oversees the management of all Federal records. Many documents are available online for you to view and research.

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Secondary Sources

15 Minute History

A podcast series is devoted to short, accessible discussions of important topics in World History and US History. The discussions are conducted by the faculty and graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin.

Google Scholar

Search thousands of academic, scholarly articles and books with Google Scholar. While the search is free, many of the materials linked require fees or subscriptions. 

KhanAcademy

Khan Academy is not just for math anymore! World History, Art History, US History, and AP History classes are all covered in Khan Academy's free resources.

JSTOR Open Access Content

JSTOR has partnered with leading presses on a project to add open access ebooks. More than 2,000 titles are freely available for anyone in the world to use.

PBS Learning Media

Designed to be used by teachers to find resources for their classes, PBS LearningMedia provides direct access to thousands of digital resources on historical topics and current events. 

Smarthistory

Experience the history of art from the Paleolithic period to the present in guided videos and essays, divided into sections by cultures, styles, and themes.

This Day In History

Select a date in history and learn what happened in that days headlines.Narrow your focus to specific dates in Automotive, Civil War, Cold War, Crime, Entertainment, Literary, Old West, Vietnam War, Wall Street, and WWII history.

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Social Studies and Statistics

BBC News Country Profiles

Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics, and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.

CIA World Factbook

Provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

FactCheck.org

A nonpartisan organization which monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. 

Pew Research Center

A nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world. They study U.S. politics and policy; journalism and media; internet, science and technology; religion and public life; Hispanic trends; global attitudes and trends; and U.S. social and demographic trends.

ProCon.org

Provides pro, con, and related information on more than 50 controversial issues from gun control and death penalty to illegal immigration and alternative energy. 

General Science

Online tutoring in all Science subjects for K-12.

Convert Me

A conversion table for weight, time, length, area, speed, pressure, and other things.

How Stuff Works

Easy-to-understand answers and explanations of how the world actually works. Covers current events in science as well as Life Science, Engineering, Physical Science, the Environment, and more.

HippoCampus

A source of free multimedia resources for middle school and high school students. Topics covered include Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, and Physics.

Khan Academy

Offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that allows learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.

Science News For Students

Publishes award-winning journalism on research across the breadth of science, health, and technology fields. 

Scientific American

The longest continuously published magazine in the U.S. has been bringing its readers unique insights about developments in science and technology for more than 170 years. Check out their Bring Science Home section for experiment ideas.

Wired: Science

A monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics.

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Astronomy and Space

Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum maintains the world's largest collection of aviation and space artifacts, encompassing all aspects of human flight, as well as related works of art and archival materials. Find information about exhibits and space on their website.

Amazing Space

Learn about astronomy, space, telescopes, stars, discoveries. Includes “Tonight’s Sky” constellations, deep sky objects and planets.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This NASA site has videos, games, and projects about outer space, the solar system, and space exploration. Lessons are broken up by grade and topic.

NASA's Space Place

NASAs Space Place includes games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology.

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Chemistry

Chem4Kids

Not just for kids! Find information on matter, atoms, elements, the periodic table, reactions, and biochemistry. 

NIST Chemistry WebBook

Locate common types of chemical information by  chemical name, formula, molecular weight, or CAS Registry Number. The website is maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Periodic Table of Elements

An interactive Periodic Table of Elements that contains more than 25 scientific facts about each element including density, state, atomic radius, and more.

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Earth Science

Ocean Portal

Created by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, this website explores all aspects of ocean life. 

Global Volcanism Program

Created by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, this webpage chronicles global volcanic activity.

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Life Science and Biology

Arkive

Discover and learn about the world’s endangered animals, plants and fungi.

Bug Guide

Creepy crawlies are everywhere! Trying to identify some in your backyard? This is the place to look!

Calflora

Information on wild plants native to California.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Information on habitat conservation, threatened & endangered species, and wildlife programs relating to California.

Encyclopedia of Life

Information and pictures of all species (plants and animals) known to science collected in one place!

InnerBody

The InnerBody Explorer interactive learning tool features over 300 high-resolution 3D CAD views of over 1500 objects in the body.

Learn.Genetics

Discover Genetics! Learn and explore cell biology, human health, evolution, and science labs. Interactive labs and teacher materials available. Created by The Genetic Science Learning Center at the University of Utah. 

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Physical Science

NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty

Internationally recommended values of the Fundamental Physical Constants. The website is maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Physics Central

Find out how physics is part of your world. Answers your questions on how things work and keep you informed with daily updates on physics in the news. Describes the latest research and the people who are doing it and, if you want more, where to go on the web. 

The Physics Classroom

The Physics Classroom is an online, free to use physics website developed primarily for beginning physics students . The website features a variety of sections intended to support students in the tasks of learning physics. Website contains a large collection of GIF animations and QuickTime movies designed to demonstrate physics principles in a visual manner. 

Physics4Kids

Not just for kids! Find information on motion, heat and thermodynamics, electricity & magnetism, light, and modern physics topics.

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Science Experiments

Exploratorium

The hands-on museum in San Francisco, CA's website offers hundreds of videos, apps, and activities on everything from what happens to meat when you cook it to why your voice sounds so good in the shower. Activities are broken down by topic.

Science Buddies

Looking for inspiration for a science fair project? Science Buddies has over 1,150 project ideas in all areas of science for a wide range of grades. 

Steve Spangler Science Experiments

Magic or Science? Find science experiments that you can do from this fun and educational website.

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Technology and Computer Science

App Inventor

This site was designed to help beginners program mobile apps for android. The site offers tutorials with step-by-step directions, an on-line book, and a "course-in-a-box."

Code.org

Code.org is a site designed to support the learning and teaching of computer coding. Features Hour of Code, a special program designed to teach beginners how to code. 

Code Monster

Interested in programming? Code Monster is an interactive introduction to basic programming concepts. Change the code and see the results immediately!

Codecademy

An online interactive platform that offers free coding classes in 12 different programming languages including Python, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS.

Scratch

Scratch is a programming language and an online community. Program and create you own interactive stories, games and animation and share with others.

A+ Click

Features a graduated set of 7000+ challenging problems for students in all grades, from the very simple to the extremely difficult. The questions concentrate on understanding, spatial reasoning, usefulness, and problem solving rather than math rules and theorems and are on the Common Core Standards in Math.

A Plus Math

Interactive math resources featuring free math worksheets, math games, math flashcards, and more.

ChiliMath

Provides free math lessons or tutorials covering selected topics in introductory, intermediate, and advanced algebra. Students are shown how to solve math problems using examples, diagrams, and step-by-step instructions.

Cool Math

This site is fully interactive and allows the user to sharpen basic math skills, play math-related games and explore new math concepts. Also check out their extremely popular website Cool Math Games to practice your skills while having fun!

Convert Me

A conversion table for weight, time, length, area, speed, pressure, and other measurements.

Good Calculators

Offers over 150 free calculators, such as loan, budget, engineering, financial, and 3D Shape.

HippoCampus

A source of free multimedia resources for middle school and high school students. Topics covered include Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Statistics, and Probability.

KhanAcademy

Offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that allows learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.

Print Free Graph Paper

Print graph paper free from your computer. Perfect for science and math homework, craft projects and, other graph paper needs. 

Wolfram MathWorld

An extensive mathematical resource by Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica. Check out interactive modules on Algebra, Geometry, Statistics, and more.

Try Brainfuse's Online Writing Lab!

Students submit their writing through a secure file sharing feature and within 24 hours, Brainfuse's writing specialists evaluate it according to a customized rubric. 

Writing, Grammar, and Composition

Common Errors in English

A list of hundreds of grammatical mistakes and commonly confused words in American English.

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Contains hundreds of lessons on grammar and English usage, over 170 computer-graded quizzes, recommendations on writing - from basic problems in subject-verb agreement and the use of articles to exercises in parallel structures and help with argumentative essays, and more!

KhanAcademy

Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that allows learners to study at their own pace. 

Purdue Online Writing Lab

This site has everything you need to know about formatting your papers in either MLA, APA, and Chicago. It also includes general rules for citation and writing in general.

Literature

Literary Encyclopedia

A constantly evolving and updating resource of authoritative reference work about literary and cultural history.

Project Gutenberg

From Shakespeare to Bronte, Tolstoy, and Twain, Project Gutenberg offers over 54,000 free eBooks. You will find the famous, classic literature, especially older works for which copyright has expired. 

Shmoop

Funny name, serious homework help! Help with book reports and other reading assignments. This source should not be used as a substitute for reading the book, but to enhance your understanding of the books assigned.

SparkNotes

Help with book reports and other reading assignments. This source should not be used as a substitute for reading the book, but to enhance your understanding of the books assigned.

Poetry

Poets.org

The official society for American poetry, including a large collection of poems, information about authors, an events calendar, and even audio version of famous poems.

Types of Poetry

All of the different types of poetry and literary terms can be found on this site together with many examples of the different styles and kinds of poetry. 

Click here to check out of Test Prep eBooks. Check out books on the SAT, ACT, GED, and a variety of AP and SAT II subject tests. Free with you library card.

ACT

The official website of the ACT includes free test prep material such as study guides, test questions, and writing samples.

CollegeBoard

The official website for The College Board, the organization that puts on the PSAT, SAT, SAT II, and AP exams. Here you will find important information on how to study for these exams including free test questions, mobile apps, and other resources to help you prepare.

Driving-Tests.org

Take free DMV practice tests and review the manuals to pass your permit and driving tests.

KhanAcademy

Get personalized practice recommendations for the skills you'll need for the SAT, plus eight official practice exams from College Board.

Union Test Prep

This website features practice tests and tips for the ACT, SAT, GED, and more.