A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Engineering

Ara: the Star Engineer

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Allow me to introduce Ara, the Star Engineer.  This little book focuses on Ara, who has a problem she wants to solve. She is a young lady who loves numbers and has a helpful sidekick robot but together they don’t know quite enough to find a solution to Ara’s problem.   Enter in Innovation Plex.   This story walks us through Ara, and the different people she meets, that help her solve her problem. 

ara star engineer

From the Back Cover:

Ara loves numbers – big numbers. She wants to program her droid DeeDee to count all the stars, but she’s not sure how.  In this upbeat adventure, Ara visits Innovation Plex to enlist the help of four tech trailblazers – inspiring real-life engineers of Google.   With her new friends, Ara discovers an algorithm for success that can solve BIG problems and be lots of fun: courage, creativity, code and collaboration.

What do you get?

A cute book geared toward girls that inspires them to think in terms of STEM and working with computers.  Innovation Plex is part of google and is host to some of the brightest engineers.   Ara turns to four women to help her solve her problem.  Each woman specializes in a different area so they can help Ara when she faces each new problem. 

Bright, colourful images fill the pages, bringing the story to life.  Each of the four focus words is highlighted.  In the image below we see COURAGE. Creativity, code and collaboration are done in a similar manner.  I liked that each time we met a new character her name and position were highlighted. 

Ara, Star engineer

As you read you will notice different words are printed in bold.  Many of these words will found in the glossary at the close of the book.  These are words that introduce important concepts to readers from 5-9 years old. The illustrations by Ipek Konak are spot on, giving voice to the working environment for these four engineers as well as to the joy of thinking and problem-solving.

ara, star engineer

My Thoughts

I thought this book was well done and applaud the authors for not dumbing it down.  Too many books don’t use language that is varied or specific enough to not only entertain children, but to educate them as well.   This book succeeds in doing both.   It would be so easy to expand this book to include various ages…from researching the helpers, to learn more about coding and computer language, to adding in a STEM project or two to put the learning into a hands-on format. Brightly coloured images with an excellent storyline following Ara through the various stages of completing her project. Well done.

 

ara star engineer

 

Ara, the Star Engineer.
Komal Singh et al
Illustrator: Ipek Konak
Page Two Books
40 pages, Hardcover (though I received a trade paperback)
STEM, engineering, girls
ages 5-9

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
NOTE: there is a website to go along with Ara, Star Engineer. You can find it here. It has a fair number of printables to expand the ideas found in this lovely picture book.

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Amazing Architecture

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The other week I talked about a review I did for Paddington Bear that had us looking for architecture, and learning some different terms to describe parts of a house.   We learned things like lintel, arch and basilica.   Recently Raincoast Books sent me a book to review called Amazing Architecture.    This small book takes us on a whirl-wind tour all over the world to look at some amazing architecture. 

amazing architecture

From the cover:

Discover and visit more than 120 brilliant buildings around the world, featuring contemporary marvels, must–see classics and quirky constructions to appeal to every architecture fan. 

What do you get?

A softcover book with a built in fly so you can easily keep your place. 130 pages filled with images from around the world.  Each image is accompanied with a map to show where in the world the building is found along with a brief write up about the piece.  

amazing architecture

Some of the pieces are quite interesting in their design like the Borgund Stave church.  I so liked the look of this church I went searching for more information.

In the front of the book there is a map that shows where the architecture is found, though most of them are from Europe and Asia, my son was delighted to see some were from North America as well. We see an arts centre in Portugal, the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, Sana’s skyscrapers in Yemen and Habitat 67 in Montreal. It seems like everywhere you go in the world you will see amazing architecture.

Perhaps you might like to visit the Crazy House in Vietnam.

All these interesting places to learn about and to develop a hankering to go see!   It really show cases the creativity of people as well as the intelligence it takes to design unique buildings that are also safe. Buildings from as far back as 400 BC up to modern days.   Good engineering isn’t limited to now-a-days that’s for certain. 

amazing architecture

My Thoughts:

This book is just filled with fascinating buildings from around the world.  What a great way to add some diversity to your world studies, to take a look at some of the amazing buildings people have put together. Wouldn’t it be fun to learn the history of the shoe house, or the capsule tower, or the Corones building?  It would also be a great book to leave sitting around to inspire your budding engineer or architectural student. 

amazing architecture

 

A Spotter’s Guide to Amazing Architecture
Lonely Planet
128 pages, softcover with built in fly
Architecture, History, Engineering
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

 

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Arcade Tinker Crate

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My son has been getting tinker crates for quite a while now.  This one he did a while ago and he pulled it out the other day just to make sure it still worked.  Sometimes I wonder if he’ll ever rehome any of them, his shelf is pretty full of finished projects. 

arcade tinker crate

I remember it took a bit finally complete and we had a lot of fun with the tiny guys… both as arcade items to capture and just in playing.  They turned out to be rascals who got into everything and found ways to tease the lad.  🙂 (yes we had a lot fun together).  🙂  It’s been oh… about a year, possibly longer…

What you get with a Tinker Crate:

A tinker zine, directions, a kit to build.  Those are the basics.  What they don’t tell you included is fun, creativity, wheels turning in young minds, what ifs, and could I try….Seeing my son mature in his skills with the crates and his burgeoning confidence that he can come up with ideas and make things on his own.  It’s a great thing indeed!

arcade tinker Crate

You see what Tinker Crates does is give young people a proven kit, they give excellent instructions that if the builder follows them, ends in a well finished product.  Mastering this skills has the benefit of teaching coordination, thinking through problems one step at a time, pride in a build well done, and the fun of success. 

Kiwi and Tinker Zines:

The Tinkerzine opens their eyes to new possibilities, and real world applications.  Providing links to interesting sights, books to increase awareness, and the “did you know factor” that so intrigues young people (and their parents for that matter).  The things we have learned is amazing. 

Some of the magazines will come with comics, others with a lot of facts.  Regardless of the style, the learning received is more than you would expect. I find that the kiwi crates use more cartoons than the tinker crates (but that would also be age related right?)  Tinker crates are geared for youth 9+.   Information to draw the student in andarcade tinker crate

Additional builds to make.  Every kit will come with additional projects to try.  Sometimes this will be with materials added to the crate, other times you need to use items you find at home. 

arcade tinker crates

As I said earlier, if you follow the instructions the builds are easy enough to put together.  Complicated steps just require you the slow down and take it step by step.

arcade tinker crate

Here my son demonstrates how well the claw works from the Arcade box.

I urge you to check out Kiwi Co for their crates.  They have some for most age groups.  Tinker crates are a welcome part of our household, make them part of yours too.  See the confidence, knowledge and excitement build.  

STEM: Tinkers STEM kit

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Today I have a different sort of STEM learning.  I picked up this kit oh..a couple years back on Amazon cause it looked interesting and thought the lad might be interested in it at some point.  I got it at a great price too!  STEM Kit with motor

Anyways, it’s made by TinkeringLabs.com… I call it “the gear box” but the official title is Tinkering Labs Electric Motors Catalyst STEM Kit.  

It’s a series of challenges plus the gears, wood pieces, motor, and sundry pieces to make it all fit together.   The inventor is not told HOW to do the challenge, just given the challenge to do. 

Tinkering Labs Electric Motors Catalyst STEM Kit

My lad has been having a lot of fun with this kit.  So far he’s made two of the challenges (each time making them as hard as possible).  I let him fiddle away on his own unless he asks for help, and then I ask him questions without giving him any definitive answers.  It’s great watching him figure out the challenges. 

 

The box comes with a handy little book that if you wanted to you can look through for ideas on how to do builds, my son prefers not to look at this book though.  He wants very much to make his own design.  He currently is ONLY using what is supplied in the kit, but when I looked through builds on the TinkeringLabs site I noted children often completed challenges using other items.  I think I will have him look at the site so he knows it’s okay to do so. The point is to be innovative and meet the challenge yes?

a build from the Tinkering Labs Electric Motors Catalyst STEM Kit

So far my lad has made two of the builds.  He dislikes having to take them all apart when he is done, but he’s building and creating and learning how different combinations of gears and motors work together.  Finessing the details is all it takes sometimes to make it work.

I don’t know if this kit will come on sale like it was when I picked it up a couple of years ago, but it’s worth keeping your eye on.  🙂   If you do pick it up, have fun with it.  Watch your young engineers innovate!

STEM: Spin Art with Tinker Crates

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Spin Art with Tinker Crates

The other day my son had a lot of fun putting together the spin art machine from Tinker Crates.   He made a simple spinning machine using the motor and disc, and then was able to create some different art effects. 

Watching my son drop paint in to the Spin Art Machine

My son explained why the camera didn’t pick up the spin from the Spin Art Machine.

I really wish I could have shown you the spin, as it made some really interesting colour patterns as it whirled around.   But Alas was not meant to be.  The art looks way better spinning than being still art. 

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The concept was fairly simple.  Make a machine that spins, in this case it has three different speeds.  Insert the paper you want to design on, then drop paint on it quickly or in single drops.  My son also experimented with some markers held lightly on the paper (just barely touching) which had a really neat affect as well, but I never managed to get that in video or photo. 

It’s one of the things that I like most about Tinker Crates is the questions it opens up for him.  The What if I try this?  Or I wonder what will happen if…  I love how I can just see his brain working away.   And reading the tinkerzine?  Ah.. it’s a good thing that.  And then when he takes what he’s learning and turns to his favourite learning mechanism.. YOUTUBE and does more research.. even better!

Spin Art by Tinker Crates, reading the magazineIt is such a gratifying thing to hear when  a lad expresses an interest in physics and how motors work and what causes different things to happen.   I love it!  And this to me is the biggest benefit of Tinker Crates and their lovely TinkerZine.   The broadening of horizons and the questions it poses in a lads mind.  It’s a grand grand thing.

If you want to see questions posed in the minds of your children, check out Tinker Crates.

Other Tinker Crates you might be interested in as well: 3D viewer.   Spy case. 

A great place to find other science information is SchoolhouseTeachers.com.   Check them out today.  The Ultimate Annual membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com is just $179, and that gives you access to over 300 courses, all the record-keeping and parent resources, the entire Video Library and World Book Online. And that’s for your entire family, no matter how many students you have. Not sure? How about a 30 day trial for just $5 – use the coupon code TRIAL on the Ultimate Monthly Membership for that special price and see what you think!

Review: Whoosh, Boom, Splat

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STEM is all the rage right now eh?   How can we encourage the learning of engineering, science, math and technology?   Whoosh, Boom, Splat takes the love of launchers of all different sorts, to encourage hands-on experimentation in your middle school and up youth.   11 different types of launchers, with variations for several of them.   It’s a rather neat book!

whoosh boom splat, an excellent hands-on STEM experiments book

Whoosh, Boom, Splat is a revised and expanded second edition.  In it you can learn to build jam jar jets, elastic Zip Cannons, clothespin Snap Shooters and more.   These aren’t your average experiments.  Things CAN go wrong and you might get hurt IF you don’t pay attention and follow the instructions.   Lots of pictures and text accompany the instructions so if you take your time and follow the directions well, you can make a good variety of launchers to amaze and delight each other.   This book is meant to be done with adult supervision (often as a safety measure) but also because some of the builds are harder to do.

Each of the 11 chapters has a good introductory section where they give you a real life application.. for instance with the jam jar jet we learn about the V1, a Nazi built cruise missile, that used a pulse jet.  These jets are still used in cruise missiles today.  With the mechanical toe we learn a bit about football and talk about Newton’s Second Law of Motion.   We get to learn about a famous engineer Gianibelli with the clothespin snap shooter. 

A complete tools and a separate materials list, plus step by step instructions walk you through each build.   Numerous pictures accompany each set of instructions helping to make each step easy to follow.

I have to admit how much I appreciate the attention to safety and the clear instructions.  It makes this book easy to use.  We were able to build this explosive device!  I also want to make the vortex launcher and clothespin snap shooter. 

 

The lad had a lot of fun helping me make this, and if we could have gone longer we would have but what with having a new cat in the house whose a tad bit skittish, we thought this length worked and proved the lesson works.  It also gave us a chance to talk about chain reactions and the atomic bomb. 

My thoughts: 

The strong emphasis on safety, along with the troubleshooting tips, and the historical origins of each machine made this a fascinating book.   The experiments range in experience needed, but all can be accomplished by any teenager and up as long as they take their time to read and understand the instruction.   The good images just add great instruction. This DIY projects will help teach STEM to your students. 

Whoosh, Boom, Splat
    Build Jam Jar Jets, Elastic Cannons, Clothespins
Snap Shooters, and more Legendary Launchers. 
Revised and Expanded Second Edition
William Gurstelle
Chicago Review Press, 154 pages, softcover
STEM, engineering, technology, science, math, 
Middle school, high school
Reviewed for: Chicago Review Press.

Where to buy: Amazon Link.

STEM: 3D viewer by Tinker Crates

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My son and I have been doing KiwiCrates for a while now, and last year finally upgraded to doing the TinkerCrates. Tinker Crates are for kids 9-16.  They are a bit more involved and have a fair number of projects available to them in the TinkerZine.

When we first started doing the crates, the lad needed a lot of support from me in order to finish them, so I think it is just superb watching his confidence blossom.  It admittedly took a while for my sensitive minded boy to realize that as much as mom LIKES building these crates with him, I also LOVED watching him branch out on his own with Tinker Crates.  Now of course, there is no stopping him.

Recently he took on this project “3D Viewer”

It was great to watch him work through the stages to building it, step by step.  He played close attention to the instructions. The instructions are so clear, and the images show the pieces exactly, so properly making the3D viewer is pretty easy to do “as long as you pay attention, make sure you tell them that part okay mom?”.   So pay attention, don’t miss steps, and you can make your own 3D Viewer.

Slowly but surely it came together.   Piece upon piece, fitting together just perfectly.

It hardly seemed like anytime had passed and he was calling me “come see mom, come see”.  And low and behold we had a 3D viewer.

Once he finished this big build he turned his attention to the smaller activities found in the tinker zine.   Here he learned about perspective by looking at some art, and playing with 3D mirrors.

My son really likes the tinkerzines because “they tell you stuff, like more about what you just built, and teach you new ways to look at stuff”.   “They give you good small projects to try too”.

After seeing how perspective was influenced by a 3d mirror he had a chance to try his hand at drawing within that knowledge.  It worked!   I’m glad he figured it out because I struggled with this one.  He’s got a better grasp on the spatial aspect of things I guess.

  To see this viewer being built, check out this video.

Anyways, Tinker Crates are a great monthly addition to our home.  I hope you will consider them for your home as well.  They are a great way to involve your children in a monthly STEM project and have fun learning.  Foster that independence, learn some good science, you never know where it will take you.

In case you are curious, Kiwi Crates also makes crates for children of all ages and interests.  Cricket, Koala, Kiwi, Doodle and Tinker.  I am tempted to get the doodle crate as well….just to see what type of activities they put in them for artists to do.   But so far, the Tinker Crates are a hit.

Now if you want to round our your experiences with Tinker Crates, NotebookingPages.com will be on sale January 24-26. Here you can find all sorts of notebookingpages to help round our your studies with the Tinker Crate.  It’s worth your time to check out their lifetime membership.