The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Common Text 2019-2020)

Think of a topic from the book or film which interests you and explore it further using our library databases. Some suggested databases are listed on this page. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind touches upon many themes and contrasts, such as food insecurity and famine in the modern world, science vs. superstition, globalization, sustainability, education, challenges faced by developing countries, applying technology toward the public good, etc.  By offering a window into a world that is geographically and culturally remote from ours, the book also acts as an important Diversity document by bridging cultural gaps as William's story moves from a very isolated setting and point of view, to a very modern, global outlook and dimension.  A variety of databases can cover these topics, from general topic databases to science, education, and sociology databases.

Each database has a main search page.  Use keywords instead of sentences when searching the databases.  You can start with one keyword and view a range of articles from magazines, newspapers, and academic journals.  Remember to check off the "Full text" articles check box in each of these databases.

 

Next, you combine keywords using the Advanced Search page.  The databases listed on this page all have an "Advanced" search link somewhere near the search bar on the first page:

The Advanced search page will provide you with multiple search boxes your keyword.  If your keywords are more than one word (phrases, such as "renewable energy") then place them in quotations marks to let the database know to search them as a phrase.

 

Try more than one database:

 

Also, remember that there can be varying or related keywords that stand for your topic, so try searching these separately, for example:

-  renewable energy

-  sustainable energy

- green technology (or power)

- solar power (or energy / technology)

- wind turbines

- wind power plants

_______________________________________________________________________________________