NoodleTools
Overview
Grade levels: 4-12
NoodleTools is an online research platform that promotes critical thinking and authentic research. Features of NoodleTools allow students to stay organized as they evaluate information, build accurate citations and bibliographies, take notes, outline topics, and prepare to write. Students can also share and collaborate with other student researchers. There are three differentiated levels of support for individual students across grades and abilities. The online environment allows librarians and teachers to provide feedback, monitor individual contributions to group work, and view statistics about source use. NoodleTools empowers students to engage deeply in research and produce original work.
Learning How
Teacher & Student Accounts
Access Noodle Tools in the BCPS Apps Portal when signed in to your Office 365 account.
Students & teachers use their Office 365 credentials.
Users will be prompted to select Student or Teacher and their school from a drop-down menu the first time they access NoodleTools to complete account set up.
Integration with BCPS Digital Content
Noodletools is an integrated feature within the ProQuest and Gale BCPS Digital Content databases, allowing users to export citations directly to their Noodletools projects. Select "Cite: from the sidebar of an article and select "Send Citation to NoodleTools" or "Export to Noodletools." Students should be signed in to Noodletools using their BCPS Microsoft accounts before using this option.
Support Resources
NoodleTools Help Desk is a comprehensive knowledge base of guides with screenshots and video tutorials. Selected guides are provided below.
Support Guides for Students include:
How to work on a collaborative project with others *Peers must have initialized their accounts before inviting them to collaborate.
See more Support Guides for Projects, Sources & Citations, Notecards, and others.
Support Guides for Library Media Specialists and Teachers include:
How to create an assignment inbox *Teachers must have initialized their accounts for shared access to a Project Inbox.
How to view and navigate between student projects in an inbox
About Citation Levels:
Students choose from three Citation Levels: Starter, Junior and Advanced. These are intended to roughly correlate with a student’s grade level as shown below. The major difference is the number and types of Sources available to cite. Librarian/teacher should check sources students will be using for the research project to see if citation forms are available at Starter or Junior Citation Level. Students CAN change the Citation Level later if necessary by choosing Change Level from the Options pull-down menu beside the Project title under My Projects.
Starter: Elementary school students or middle school ESL learners; 6 basic citation forms.
Junior: Middle school students or high school ESL learners; small set of simplified citation forms.
Advanced: High school students or college, professional; comprehensive coverage, 70+ citation forms.
About the Project Inbox:
Teachers or Librarians should set up a Project Inbox before students start the research projects.
Suggested naming conventions for Project Inboxes:
Elementary: Teacher Name-Grade-Project Title/Topic (for example: Jones 2 Schoolyard Habitats)
Secondary: Teacher Name-Class Period-Project Title/Topic (for example: Williams 1B Judicial Branch or Smith PD 4 Native American Music)
Provide students the name of the Project Inbox, and instruct them to Share their Project with the Inbox as soon as they create the new Project. Project Inbox name will pop up as they type.
Direct students to fill in their Name when they share their Project with the Inbox. This will enable the teacher/librarian to see student names rather than just usernames.
Digital Citizen. 2c - Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
Knowledge Constructor. 3b - Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.
Knowledge Constructor. 3c - Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
Global Collaborator. 7b - Students use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints.
Ideas for Use
prevent plagiarism
create citations for over 59 different source formats in MLA, APA or Chicago citation style
save citations for future reference
create bibliographies and annotated bibliographies
create and organize digital note cards for study or writing
create outlines of your research
use analytics to reflect on your research
evaluate sources
engage in peer review
engage in online research collaboration
organize information and ideas for writing