homeschool

Going Through Browser Tabs

November 2, 2019 By Annette1 12 Comments

It’s the letter G this week for the blogging through the alphabet challenge and I was wracking my brain for what I could do. As I was driving home from church this morning I thought hey! I know I do Going for the letter G. So here’s my third for the year I think.. Going through Browser Tabs.

Wanting to check links

I have a number of sites that I want to go through the links on them. All are homeschooling related.

15 places to learn coding for free.
Some online homeschool courses that were new to me.
Practical by Default had a listing of online courses that had a couple there were new to me and I wanted to remember them.
Integrate math and art. Some of these just sound really good.
Highschool Electives. By techiehomeschool mom.

Homeschooling Related

Other sites that I want to do something with

Canadian Schoolhouse. The Canadian site of The Old Schoolhouse.
Make Belief Comix just looks like an interesting site that I wanted to show the lad sometime.
World War 2 search on Christian Book Distributors.
Terrific Turtles. This inspires me to try my hand at something like this. I just like the set up and wanted to remember it. Sarah did a number of posts like this for the summer.
Compound Interest… A bunch of graphics on elements from the periodic table I think. It intrigued me. Maybe it will you too.
World War 2 colouring pages interested me at EduPics. They have lots of variety there so you should check it out!
I was looking into some highschool alternatives for the lad, checking out the virtual learning centre and independent learning centre. I might sign the lad up for a course or two next year.
WW2 materials on TeachersPayTeachers.
Wondering if this might be a better grammar program for the lad.
I still need to share this engineering journey with the lad.
As I increasingly think on making printables to sell, these lapbook templates from Homeschool Share seem like a good idea. Maybe not to use to sell but to at least generate ideas.

Faith Related

RightNow Media. This was a gift from our church, a free subscription.

24 inspiring bloggers. I’m linked on this page! 🙂

Various Others

Sometimes I just have random links open

Hover a place that just does domain names.
The Blog Plan – I started this course, just haven’t finished it. This site is related I think…. Start a Mom Blog.
Make and Sell Printables. I’ve done most of this. Yes, I still need to finish it, I’ve just been otherwise motivated lately. And there is this related page.
AudioGrabber. Hubby sent me this for some reason that I can’t remember, but it seemed important to keep. 🙂
Some day I will make this stuffed mushrooms.
Someone brought up on facebook asking about alternatives to netflix so I went looking and found these.

Others in this series

Enjoy Learning Music?

October 31, 2019 By Annette1 6 Comments

Did you know that my lad and I used to practice songs together? We’d memorize hymns such as Rock of Ages or Silent Night. We picked up playing the keyboard and have learned some flute. I love music though I admittedly have lost my good singing voice. Introducing this love of music has been a goal of mine for the past 14 years. 🙂 I don’t know how successful I have been, but my lad has signed up to learn guitar this coming year. Could it be true that my lad might enjoy learning music?

Resources

So let’s imagine that you, like me, have this desire to help your children enjoy learning music. How might you do so? I’ve collected some resources that may prove useful for you.

Classics for Kids. I LOVE this website. My lad and I used it throughout his elementary years. Listening to classical music, learning about the composers behind it. Wonderful site!
Harmony Fine Arts has a music appreciation course that you might like.
If you are learning music and want to learn some theory to go with it, Teoria and Music Theory might be sites you want to check out.
Music in our Homeschool is a facebook group for folks wanting to bring music… into their homeschool! 🙂 I’ve been a member since it started I think. It’s a pretty good group of people.
Grab a song, whether it’s a hymn, folk, country, jazz or whatever. Learn songs of your choice. Learn about the person who wrote it. Music draws people together. Memorizing songs serves you well in your older age if you have it memorized and you can’t read the words! 🙂 (No no, not speaking from experience!) Give that gift to your children and sing together.
you could even head to youtube to listen to various genres of music. See what you like and what you don’t.

Games and More

SFSkids has a flash player game to learn about the orchestra. Then go to Carnegie Hall and play an orchestra related game. Both require flash player to work.
Another way to add enjoyment to your music lessons is to make your own instruments. This can be as simple as beating a plastic bowl, taping elastics to a box, or blowing on a piece of grass held between your palms. There are kits to build your own ukulele.
Two years ago we got a subscription to the K-W Symphony. Just a two ticket package for six different shows. The lad and Dad went a couple times on their own, and I and Dad and then twice we bought an extra ticket so we could all go. It was a TOTAL hoot! The lad loved it and got to listen to many different styles of music. He developed a love of classical and plays it while he does his school work. We would LOVE to do this again sometime. 🙂 If you can… do it!

Reviews I’ve Done

Maestro Classics is a fun way to learn music. CD’s telling a story about music and composers. It’s a great listen.
Learning piano or organ? You might want to check out this free music site called Simply Music. This is my review.

In Conclusion

I hope you have found something to help your students enjoy learning music. Adding music into your life will add depth and enjoyment to your life. Music is a good thing! 🙂

This post is my last in the write 31 days challenge. I know some I was very strict and stuck to the five minute rule and others I just included it as part of another post. It’s okay to do that you know, sometimes you have to bend the rules to make a challenge work. 🙂

Calvert Homeschool Review

October 30, 2019 By Annette1 4 Comments

Calvert Homeschool is a place where your students in grades 3-12 can meet all their schooling needs. Can you imagine the ease of life that creates? I do need to tell you though, their high school courses are just as intriguing for their parents (at least this parent!) I have got to tell you all about it. I’ve have, for the past few weeks been able to make good use of their mobile on-line program

What I am Reviewing.

Calvert Homeschool.
Calvert Homeschool Online.
Grades 3-12
Online homeschool, homeschool online
Individual and Family Subscriptions.

Providing quality education using multi-media lessons, hands-on experiences, customizable lesson plans, and easy to access dashboards for parent/teacher and student.

Giving you full online access to 45 courses, this online homeschooling option also provides numerous features such as interactive lessons, automatic grading, and monthly payments.

Details of Calvert Homeschool

It does take some getting used to, the system that Calvert uses as their base. You don’t go to the main site to do your learning, but to the online Calvert Homeschool site. This caused me no end of frustration until I figured that part out. 🙂 Learn from me… connect with their help department!

How we Used It

My original goal, was to have my son use the world history course. He’s currently working through material for world war 2 and I noted it had a few days on this topic. I struggled initially figuring out how to get him to this section and the amazingly helpful staff at Calvert helped me learn how to assign them and close off the rest of the course. WOOT WOOT!

He started, and he admittedly tried. But Calvert wasn’t a good fit for him. He is predominately an audio learner, and Calvert suits other learning styles better. Since Calvert DOES work for me, I stepped into the gap. I’ve been brushing up on my physics and engaging in a biology course.

Details of Calvert Homeschool On Line

Two sections to Calvert

There are two distinct sections to Calvert, the first is the parental section where you can choose lessons, customize how they will work, and grade assignments. The second section is where the student will find their assignments and complete their course work. Each requires their own login information.

Parental Dashboard

In the teacher or parental dashboard you can set up your courses, school, and students quite easily. As a parent you control how your child is able to complete their course. What constitutes an A, how they answer questions, and other important details. With the 3-12 package you can assign ANY course to your student. You will find them under each grade level. These are the options I had for grade nine.

I ended up choosing two courses from grade 10 and just one from grade nine. Grade 10 was Biology and World History, and grade nine was physics/chemistry. Adding another class later isn’t an issue, just go into the curriculum set up area and you are on the way.

If you ever get lost or don’t know what you are doing they have put together helpful manuals to assist you.

My desire is to walk you through EVERYTHING but that would make this review FAR too long, so let me just walk you through the sections I used the most.

Everything is easily right at hand. Everything that is clickable is in blue. I used the assigned work and grading tasks the most.

I absolutely loved how easy they made it for me to grade the assignments. Just click on the link and grade.

One thing that I couldn’t figure was how to know what mark to assign a given assignment. Should I give it a five out six, or a 2 out of 3? It wasn’t, at least for me, always an intuitive decision. How to fix that, I haven’t a clue. But we muddled through and grades were assigned.

Student Dashboard

Like the parent/teacher board, the student dashboard is easy to navigate.

You can see at a glance what you have to work on (a report, experiment or project) and what lesson is up next. A list of items needed for assignments can be found so it’s easy enough to have supplies at hand. One of the assignment (about needing to closely observe for experiments) called for a bowl of peanuts, my son and I (cause I told him about this one and he thought it sounded fun) used a bowl of dried fruit instead. We choose to not get lost on the details and peanuts we would have had to purchase. 🙂

Lesson Set up

One of the beauties of Calvert is that you aren’t tied down to working at home on a specified device. As long as you have the internet, you can work off your laptop, tablet or phone.

Each lesson follows a predictable format. Overview, lesson pages, questions based on the lesson. Each lesson can easily be completed in a day. Stopping and starting again is not a problem either, because we all know that things happen and sometimes lessons started have to wait.

Vocabulary Arcade

On the overview page the student is introduced to the vocabulary words used throughout. With these words comes the vocab arcade.

While I think it’s great to have a way to help students practice their vocabulary, I had to wonder why they chose to have animated characters that would clap for a correct answer. It makes sense for elementary school students, but not for high school. Neither I or my 14 year old were impressed with the arcade.

I found the flash cards to be helpful. It’s a simple platform that simply helps you learn new words.

What a lesson looks like

The overview pages introduces the lesson, showing the highlights, and giving needed vocabulary words to understand the lesson.

One of the things I really enjoyed was that videos come with transcripts! So for someone like me who would rather watch a video than listen to it. I can avoid the video and read my way through. Using this option of course is not mandatory, but it’s a lovely aid for those who have English as a second language, or other comprehension issues.

I do have a bone to pick though. Growing up in Canada, I am well used to the metric system. Using a centimeter/millimeter rule in a lesson for accuracy and then not actually being accurate. It’s just wrong. Accuracy is not guessing. If you are measuring something you DO need to be accurate but you can’t on a centimeter ruler be accurate to a 100th place value if they don’t have a 100th place value on the ruler. Anything else is just guessing.

Other than that particular math question, overall I found this secular, online homeschool option to be a good program.

Should You Use Calvert Homeschool?

There are mixed feelings in this household toward Calvert Homeschool. Read all the way through to understand why. 🙂

Normally I would have my son speak his mind, but his mind is not disposed kindly toward Calvert. He doesn’t like it. Would he adapt if I told him to, yes, but relationship is always before schooling. There are a myriad of things that he doesn’t like, but most of it comes down to personal preference and he has other avenues he’d rather pursue.

Therefore I ended up signing up the lad for two additional courses. These courses are Science300 and Integrated Physics and Chemistry. I did this so that I could review the program well. Calvert was kind enough to let us have six months, so they deserve someone reviewing their program well. The end result being: that although, like the lad, I dislike certain aspects, I do overall like the rest of the program.

What I think:

I love that if I know the material already I can skip ahead to the questions.

I love the the first page of each new section is an overview of what I will be learning about. It sets my brain in the right direction.

I dislike that for essay questions that it comes up in a F for the final grade (when you click on complete lesson). Like my lad I find that rather demotivating. I would rather it would say something like “awaiting marking by teacher”, or something, anything else than F.

I like that each page is focused. You can jump back and forth from one page to the next. You can rush through, or take your time. This aspect gives it a feel of a self-paced course. I love that the main page spells out what the next assignments are and that they are clickable.

Would it be useful for high school students?

In a nutshell yes, even though it is not a good fit for my lad, but I think I would have liked it at his age. The difference being in our learning styles. I like being able to jump back and forth, reading and re-reading and he likes to simply move straight-forward. He is an auditory learner and I’m a reader.

Calvert, I think, works best for students who like to read and who pick up on details quickly while reading. My son, reads, but when he doesn’t get something, falls back to searching for videos that will explain it better. He does not feel confident doing that with the world history course from Calvert as the questions are based directly on the lesson rather than on an overall concept.

The fact that there are a good variety of projects, it is highly customizable, and the excellent customer service makes Calvert an option you should explore further. Use the free trial period. See if it’s a good fit for your student, and give it a go. 🙂

45 members of the crew took part in reviewing Calvert. You should check out what they have to say! 🙂

Social Media Links

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CalvertHomeschool
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CalvertEdu
Instagram: www.instagram.com/calverthomeschool
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/CalvertHomeschool/

10 Fantastic Ways to Learn History

October 24, 2019 By Annette1 5 Comments

History is a fascinating topic, one that is more than just dates, names and places. My son studied WW1 last year and this year he’s doing WW2. He has been totally fascinated as he’s learning about spies, North African battles and the people involved. Ergo I thought it would be fun to share 10 fantastic ways to learn history. For it’s definitely more than reading and memorizing dates.

Unit Studies

Unit Studies are a fantastic way to learn history. They help to connect all the dots between dates, science, geography, fashion, wild life and more. What you put into a history based unit study is what makes it complete.

You might not be able to include everything, and definitely you can’t in all the detail you might like, but the details you add will bring depth to your study.

For instance: As my lad studied World War 1 last year we learned about the animals that helped the war effort. We learned about the cats, dogs, pigeons and more. We touched on them lightly but we didn’t read the stories of men and their mascots. Nor did we delve in-depth into the care of the horses. But we learned that animals were important to the war effort, which was our hope.

Some resources you might like

Home School in the Woods.
Exploring Africa.
Amanda Bennet Unit Studies.
Homeschool on the Range, blogs small unit studies that sometimes ask interesting questions. Yvie also sells unit studies.

YouTube

My son, being the visual learner that he is, loves to go to YouTube. In fact, if he struggles with learning any concept he turns to youtube for answers.

When we studied WW1 a lot of our videos came from The Great War Channel.

Next year we intend to study Canadian history and I expect we’ll use Canadiana a lot as a base of study. And Historica Canada as well, who makes videos like the one below.

Adventures

The Great Canadian Adventure is a monthly subscription plan with guides walking the reader through each provinces history. Walk through the formation of our country.

The Canadian homeschooler has a monthly online subscription that bounces you all over Canadian history. The Canadian Time Capsule has good options for various ages making it an excellent resource to study Canadian history as a family.

Or you can take Audio history tour with Headphone History. Learn the stories and legends of Canada, stories written for children.

Magazines

Canada’s History has a fantastic adult magazine and a really really good kids magazine. Canada’s history and Kayak are premier magazine that will give an good overview of Canadian history over the course of a year.

If you are looking for something beyond Canadian History these top 10 might intrigue.

On-Line Resources

Of course you can always find history resources on line. I’ve a bunch in my pinterest board that might intrigue. Beyond that I have some links to resources.

History for Kids. Seven sections filled with cool games, videos, worksheets on many historical events and quizzes to test what you’ve learned.
Mission USA. Five interactive missions from American History.
National Geographic Kids has a history section.
American history for kids focuses on USA history.
CBC kids helps younger ones explore Canadian culture.
Time for Kids helps elementary students see history in the making.
DocsTeach uses primary source documents as a way to teach history. I had fun browsing and almost forgot I was writing this post. 🙂
Social Studies for kids not only gives you history of the past, but current events as well.
Canadian History for Kids was another fun website to browse.

Field Trips

Real life or virtual field trips help history come alive. Some trips to museums just let you browse through the past. Others, especially if you go as part of a group create experiences, helping you role play history.

Chapter Books, Living Books

Oh boy there are TONS of books that spell out history.

Biographies. Abraham Lincoln.
Diaries. Dear Canada diaries.
Period books. It rained warm bread.
Chapter books that touch on history. Magic Tree House.

Encyclopedias to Learn History

Encyclopedias that focus on history are a fantastic find and if you can find some that approach history from different perspectives… even better. My son and I learned so much history reading two page spreads each night before bed.

Some focus on art, others on weapons, others on the development of people groups. Each encyclopedia has it own focus. Read them, think it through, compare them to each other. It’s amazing the links you’ll find.

Hands-on Elements

Make dioramas, lap books, build with lego or play dough. So many ways you can make history interactive. Cook from from whatever time period you are studying.

Personal Accounts

Listening to Gramma talk about her experiences during the war my son’s ears perk up. It’s relevant to him. Also serving in army cadets, especially over Remembrance Day dinners, gives him the opportunity to listen to the war stories of our local veterans. Whose history are you willing to learn? What opportunities can you find to listen?

History Surrounds Us

History surrounds us, in monuments and museums, in the people from other lands and times, in the books we read and the things we do. How can you make history relevant to your students? What other fantastic ways to study history can you come up?

This post is part of the ABC blogging tour. Come on join us!

Others in this series:

A – Add in your life.
B – Edmund Burke.
C – Clarity in Writing.
D – Deep Runs the Well.
E – Ease of Consistent Schedules.
F – 10 fantastic ways to learn history.

How to Teach Elementary Science

September 20, 2019 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Wanting to do science with your students? I love science, I find it very easy to teach, particularly in the younger years, but not everyone has a natural love of science. The question arises: How to teach elementary science. Let’s walk through some of the options you have for teaching science to elementary aged students.

Nature Study

Honestly, I find nature study to be easiest way of teaching science to elementary students. There is so much to explore and learn just be observing the world around you.

Observe Animals

Observed the animals around you. These can be the squirrels in your local park or the spiders and bugs inside your house. You can visit the animals at the local zoo or at a wildlife rescue centre. You might want to visit a friend with a rabbit/guinea pig/dog or maybe go to a dog/cat/rabbit show.

Perhaps your co-op will offer an animal class or your local library offer a photo series of animals around the world.

You might want to sit down in your own backyard, block off a section of 1 or two feet and have your children count all the animals they find. Then you could walk down to the local stream or park and look for ducks, water striders, bugs, spiders etc.

You could easily do a bird study by setting up a bird feeder in your backyard. Find animals and take time to watch them, you’ll be amazed at what you learn.

If you can, bring along your phone, or a nature study guide, or a note pad (to write down questions for later) so you can answer questions that your children have.

An example of Nature Study

We have three squirrels in our back yard… grey (new youngster) white and black. Just by watching them we know that grey is a bold as brass and will probably cause trouble in the rabbitry this winter. White is easy going and knows to stay out of our way. She’s been around for the past two years and doesn’t cause any fuss for us. Black will get into mischief in the summer and if I leave a bowl of grain out for him in the winter he’ll get into that but won’t bother with anything else. Bold as brass grey is starting to chase black around but so far hasn’t ousted him from the backyard maple tree. Grey is still confined to the front yard… he is pushing hard though. By watching them we are able to learn so much about them, what they eat (did you know they will eat green tomatoes?), how they defend their territory (or to challenge for more), and all the sounds they make.

Unit Studies/LapBooks

Other than getting out in nature, or alongside of getting out in nature are unit studies and lapbooks.

You take your child to the zoo and they get fascinated by tigers, or chimpanzees, or maybe the dwarf goats. You can find a unit study or lapbook on them. My son has long been fascinated by ants and spiders and his youth I commissioned an amazing ant unit study for him. He LOVED it. Learned so much. Now he raises ants and gains additional learning.

Some places you can go for materials.

Amanda Bennett Unit Studies. Horses, tigers, dolphins, geckos, insects, oceans, volcanoes, seashells, caves and so much more. Go explore, and then come home and learn some more! (pay)
Homeschool Share has all sorts of unit studies and lapbooks. (free)
Lapbook Lessons – Animals and science to learn and do. (free)
SchoolhouseTeachers.com – a variety of lessons, so many options, bug science, world of animals, curious science, disgusting creatures etc. with over 400 lessons there’s sure to be nature studies for you! (paid)

Pay Attention to Landforms, Soils and Plants

When you are out and about pay attention to landforms. Notice the pond, the creek, the hill, the way stones stick out of the ground. As you travel around pay attention to different trees and terrain.

When you are working out in your garden show your children what good soil looks and feels like. Have them experiments with sandy soil, clay and good loam. Does it make a difference if you add fertilizer?

Help them grow a row, or start a bean plant in a container, or maybe grow some cat grass for a loved family pet. Have your children test out if a plant will grow in the dark or what happens if light is far away from it. Learn about phototropism and more.

When you walk through a forest pay attention to the mosses, fungi, ferns and trees. Help your students see the different levels of a forest and then take an excursion on line and learn about the rainforest and its different levels. Expand their learning naturally.

Additional Online Sites

There are numerous places on-line if you need more of a curriculum, or places to learn or see experiments done.

Mystery Science – has open and go science lessons. Sign up for a free year of science lessons. They have a limited number of spaces open.
cK-12 – has an elementary division that you might find useful. These are flexbooks that you can use online or download as a PDF.
In the Lab of Mr. Q you will find downloadable classic science texts. Provide a well-rounded science education.
The Canadian Wildlife Federation has put together education units to help teachers.
Nature Canada doesn’t have lessons but they are a wealth of information.
PBS learning has a number of experiments to watch and maybe do.
Canadian Geographic has a great kids area, and as an educator you can sign up for the cangeo education newsletter. They put together some great resources!
Project Gutenberg has put together an elementary geography program.
Easy Peasy has an all in one science curriculum. An excellent resource for your science needs.
Guesthollow has a science and literature course.

Online sources for teaching elementary science

Don’t forget other sources

Don’t forget to

go to the library and raid their shelves for all things nature study-ish
Watch youtube videos
search websites with good information on whatever your children are interested in.
Easy science experiment books…. there are lots on the market.

There is so much information available, make use of it.

For instance, I am hopeful to get my lad into a Biodiversity weekend. That might not work for your younger children, but I know in London we have groups that do forest school, another that takes regular walks in the local swamp, my son spent time with friends and family looking for minnows, crayfish and clams in our local streams, and of another group that does scavenger hunts in various local playgrounds. Make use of the world around us, and do science the easy way! Enjoy your explorations.

A book that might help you is the family adventure journal, or these nature cards. You might want to make some crafts from the things you discover making the crafty nature journal just what you need. I’ve pinned loads of ideas over on my nature study pinterest board. Give it a boo, you might be delighted by what you find.

Add in Your life

September 16, 2019 By Annette1 14 Comments

Aren’t you delighted to see me back after a summer away from talking about how to be a better writer? What can I say, it’s been great to take a break and focus on other things for a while. To add to the experiences in my life. What experiences did you add in your life?

My life over the summer was filled with a teen busy landscaping and visiting friends, a hubby working, visiting a friend from CA, and gardening. We took in the beach and some sights and kept ourselves entertained well enough. 🙂 Even a week away for camping was found.

Anyways, I’ve kept up one of my joys over the summer of participating in Five Minute Fridays. Almost every week I partake and turn a one word prompt into a poem. It allows me to do what I’m going to be talking about today. Insert my life into my writing. Letting a world flow through your mind until it strikes a chord…using the chord from my life to respond to a simple word prompt.

add in life (making your writing come alive)

Insert My Life in Writing?

Write what you know, it’s an adage that writers are often told. In every book I read on writing it’s repeated: Write what you know. It doesn’t mean that you have to tell your life story, but you use your life and what you know into the stories that you tell.

For instance, today my lad was telling me about a character he would like to create. A cat, who is a warrior, but is only good with a crossbow. He doesn’t fight well hand to hand, has no knife, or other weapon, just his crossbow. He would be about two feet tall but highly effective. Not a talker, just a crossbow expert.

I told him this character sounds like a fascinating fellow and would love to know more about him. Is his whole race of people the same or is he an odd-ball? What causes him to not talk much? That question caused the thoughts to spiral. It’s SUCH FUN!

We took the time to explore a bit where such an idea came from: his cats, the games he plays, his friends, his interests in life etc. All helped him spawn this imaginative creature.

Don’t Short Change Yourself

It’s hard sometimes you know, to figure out how the events, thoughts, conversations etc of your life, can add depth to your writing. The things that we do, the very conversations, and fun, and even the sorrows that we experience, these are the well-spring of our well-written work.

Regardless if our focus is on poetry, on non-fiction or creative writing. If you take the time to add in your life, your writing will be full of meaning and experiences only YOU can create, because only you have lived your life. Don’t discount your experiences in any way.

Live your life, live it well. Use your life to make what you do even better. Take your love of fishing to show the excitement of a child catching their first fish. Use your confusion over the right outfit to wear to showcase the angst of getting ready for a date. Apply your laughter over a night out, your disappointment in a movie, your fear at stepping outside of your comfort zone, the smells of campfire and how different that is from burning rubbish. Growing up on a farm or growing up in town…they bring a richness we can’t always fully grasp. Choose your words wisely, sift through your memories, and share them well. Therefore enabling help us see the world more clearly.

Engineering for High School

September 6, 2019 By Annette1 10 Comments

Do you have a child who is detailed oriented and likes to figure out the why of how things work? Who likes to figure out how to make things, or figures out the most efficient way of doing things? Well.. I DO. It sometimes drives me crazy, but I’ve learned (mostly to live with it). I’ve had more than one person tell me that he’s got a bit of an engineers mind. Therefore, this week I’m hoping to help others who are looking into opportunities for engineering for high school.

Places to Go On-Line

The Engineer Guy is a website I am still exploring. There is much to see and read. How useful he will be to me and my lad I don’t know. Check him out.

I find this site Instructables absolutely fascinating. The things people make. Sometimes I feel so inspired to try some of them out. You need to be aware that not everyone is as complete in their instructions as others. Some have specialized equipment, so pick and choose what you look at. But wow… browsing is such fun! They even have lessons just for high school.

TeachEngineering has some 360 lessons. Print them off and use them. Practice out your engineering skills. Complete a whole unit or dash around trying your hand at different things.

I’m looking into a program called Engineer Your world. I don’t know a whole lot about it but it certainly looks interesting. I’ve learned it’s not cheap, it’s three year commitment with materials to store and you need a minimum of 9 children to participate yearly.

If you want more online options, you could go to many of online options I listed here and search out their engineering courses. For instance Alison has all these engineering related courses.

Real Life Opportunities

As I was doing some researching I discovered that different universities (in the States and Canada) and I’m assuming there are opportunities world-wide for summer learning. For instance the University of Western Ontario has this high school program.

The University of Waterloo has these enrichment programs.

You could job shadow an engineer… there are so many fields for engineers it’s amazing. SO if you didn’t like aspects of one engineers job you could easily switch to another. Pursue to the type of engineering you would like to do.

Positions for Engineers

Civil engineer. These are the most common. Something is being built like a road, a house, a building etc. You need people to design it, and then you need people to safely construct it. These people (the designers and the constructors) are civil engineers. To learn more see here.

Mechanical Engineer. An engineer who deals with mechanical things. They work on the design of machines, calibration and more.

Chemical Engineer. Well you know it has to do with chemicals right? They use their knowledge of chemistry and chemical to develop and design chemical manufacturing processes. They use this knowledge to develop new drugs, in food production and much more.

Petroleum Engineer. These folks finds ways to better utilize petroleum products and to extract it from the ground.

Electrical Engineer. “Someone who designs and develops new electrical systems, solves problems and tests equipment.” They apply (after study) physics and math to various systems to transmit energy and to help process information. If it’s electrical, they are involved. Continue reading here.

Aeronautic Engineer. Think of anything that interacts with the air and space. Those items/jobs/positions are what these folks fill.

My son has taken two engineering courses over his middle school years. Last year Robotics and Thinking like an Engineer.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com has a few engineering tasks on their site. Not a whole lot, but perhaps enough the whet the appetite of your students. Before you know you’ll be teaching engineering for high school! 🙂

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Engineering for High School.