A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Science

Our World Is Relative

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Some ideas are difficult to truly understand, the Theory of Relativity is one of them. Julia Sook takes this theory and breaks it down into an easily understood scientific Fact. Our World is Relative is an excellent picture book helping readers understand Einstein’s theory easily.

Our World is Relative

What I Am Reviewing

Our World Is Relative.
Julia Sooy
Molly Walsh (illustrator)
Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan
Received: ARC copy, trade paperback
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
32 pages, 4-8 years,
Picture book, Math, Science,
Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein

Size, speed, weight, direction, distance
We think of space and time as fixed and measurable.
But these measurements – our experience of space and time – they are relative.
Our world is relative.
With simple, engaging text and vibrant art imbued with light and movement, Our World Is Relative offers a child’s-eye view of time, space, and the vast role that relativity plays in comprehending our world. It’s an introduction to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, perfect for any curious young scientist.

Our World is Relative

The Details

Molly Walsh does a wonderful job of illustrating how easily one’s perspective influences how one sees the world. She helps young children see, along side the simple language written by Julia Sook, how relativity matters.

An inch can be small, or an inch can be large. A ruler is 12 inches, but in space can be shorter. We move through time going forward, but it can appear to be going backwards. Depending ENTIRELY on our perspective.

Everything we see around us is relative. A difficult concept perhaps for young children to understand. Through excellent illustrations and careful word usage Ms. Sook brings the Theory of Relativity to life.

Our World is Relative

My Recommendation

To be honest I find this a hard one.. Often when I look at picture books I try to think of them as bedtime or cuddle time books. I don’t see this book in that light.

However, picture books are so much more than that. I remember attending a conference where one of the speakers recommended that regardless of the age level you are teaching, go to picture books first.

Authors of picture books are forced to explain concepts in simple terms. That very requirement makes picture books an excellent resource for understanding difficult material. This picture book does it well with the Theory of Relativity. Not your normal fodder for kindergarten, but definitely worth looking at for various age levels.

On that level, this book is worth looking at. For helping students break down the concept of relativity in a way easily grasped.

Our World is Relative
disclosure

Review: CrossWired Science

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We happen to love science in our household. A long time ago we learned that science encourages us to ask questions that cross a wide spectrum of study. CrossWired Science proved encourage the same type of questions. Walk with us through this question inducing science program with two main courses of study: Fluid Dynamics and Sound.

CrossWired Science

What I am Reviewing

Fluid Dynamics and Sound.
CrossWired Science.
On-line program
Science, Multi-level
Online Science Lessons, Learning Online, Homeschool Science

CrossWired Science

Who is CrossWired?

CrossWired Science (CWS) showcases a desire by the creators to share science with families and their children. Faith is central to how they put their online science program together. They want to help young people cement their knowledge of science and of how God fits into the bigger picture of it.

Through the use of scripture and the work of other individuals, they want to help youth understand the connection of God the creator and the bible.

What CWS intends to build is a science program that is put together as distinct projects. So far they have given us sound and fluid dynamics. They intend to give us additional projects as well.

The Finer Details:

As we were using CrossWired Science it was fairly evident that it was still a work in progress. It was fascinating to see the responsiveness of the creators with aspects that we liked, or would rather see modified. That is one of the joys of being Beta testers… seeing changes happen right before our eyes!

For instance, my son kept asking “In what order am I supposed to do things?” The response of the CWS crew? A calendar! The general goal is for each of these global projects to take a month to complete.

CrossWired Science

You can see the care they have for their students in the very fact that they don’t insist that there is only one way to work through their projects. They provide additional calendars such as this 1.5 month option.

CrossWired Science

The target audience is students aged 4 to 18. My son is currently 13, he worked on Fluid Dynamics, I worked on sound. There are two tracks to use, first times and second timers. At this point in the learning process my son and I haven’t found a lot of difference between the two.

As you can see from the calendars above, they do like to encourage their students to read. This was a bit of a stickler for my lad, “Mom, I have lots to read already, why can’t I just look things up online or watch a video?” I had to agree with him. He’s a fairly busy lad .. often working on his own projects or doing extra work for his schooling or programs he is involved in. I did go the library for him when he mentioned something he wanted to learn about AND….. got him to pose for a picture!

CrossWired Science

As much as we know CWS likes to encourage it’s students to read, when it comes right down to it, my lad lives in a digital age and has embraced that concept completely. He loves the immediacy of “I’m interested in learning more about vortices, and then searching out more information online”.

And just LOOK at all the options he has for learning! All these things to stimulate questions being asked and then answers being looked up.

CrossWired Science

Videos make up a big portion of each project, followed by worksheets (for each video), experiments, digging deeper, a choice of research projects, and more. They even suggest field trips you can do! I will mention some of the sections individually below.

CrossWired Science

They encourage students to share what field trips they go on so they can build a data-base of ideas for all the students to work from.

Videos

These are an important part of CWS. You watch the videos, and then answer a worksheet. You can either print them off or answer them online. There are the links they put together as well as (under General Links) links to helpful youtube videos. Below is one of them.

Experiments

CrossWired Science

As you can see they provide a lot of options for experiments. The experiments open up in PDF files. We found that each experiment page contained links for additional research as well as more than one experiment you could do. All those additional links we loved. They spawned additional research by the lad and myself.

CrossWired Science

The information on vortices led my lad down the path of airplanes which coincided nicely with our research on the airplanes of WW1. I decided with the shark video to learn more about dogfish sharks. The experiments did what was intended, helping us to dig deeper into the project. 🙂

I have to admit, we struggled with some of the experiments in that they didn’t give clear instructions on how to complete it. For instance, what are the ingredients for making a cornstarch oobleck?

CrossWired Science

Encouragement to see science in a bunch of different ways. Who would have thought that a study of Fluid Dynamics would lead me to watching a video on a shark dissection?

Gold Digs

These are longer study which led from one point to the next. Designed in such a way that older students could help younger ones. You can go indepth, or just touch the surface.

CrossWired Science

Each section when clicked leads directly to the named section, which is great for the point of convenience if you remember what letter you stop at. It’s a fairly long section so rather than complete it in one day, my lad divided it over three. Some of the information he knew already, but much he didn’t. He enjoyed this study on bones.

Thoughts and Recommendations

My intention was to keep pace with the lad as he went through his course. I um.. didn’t. I got distracted by spring weather and gardening! I absolutely love that I am not committed to following one project through before checking out the other project. I started with Fluid Dynamics just like the lad, but then he asked if I could do the other project so he knows what to look forward to.

His intention is to complete both projects, at his own schedule. He loves having the calendar to follow but doesn’t want to do as much in day as it asks him to do. It’s no mattering to me how long it takes him to complete it as I know he will get through it.

He has made some comments to me about how some of the videos aren’t very in-depth and seem for a lower grade level, they often have music playing the background which for him is distracting, and he wants to see more professionalism in them. All that said, after working through the course over these past three weeks he is commenting on how much he is learning and his freedom to follow rabbit trails.

Get it?

YES. My recommendation (and my son’s) is that you go out and get it. Their end goal is to have 25-30 projects by the time they are finished.

Their projects will encourage your children to ask questions, their experiments are set up so you don’t have to do ones you’d rather not, and the videos are easy to watch and build leads off of. It’s a solid science program that will help you connect God with creation and all that he has done BUT if you aren’t a person of faith, you can easily incorporate the science into your studies without feeling overly influenced. A solidly good program that is well on it’s way to becoming a stellar one. Creators who care about the people using it… CrossWired Science, it’s a win-win. 🙂

CrossWired Science.

I strongly urge you to check out all the other reviews. There are 80 of by the crew. You can find them here or by clicking the image above.

Junk Drawer Physics

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Learning while doing is by far the best way to cement material. Junk Drawer Physics is filled with 50 different experiments and builds to help the learner understand physics. Understand potential energy, vibrations, magnetism and more by creating toys and small machines as well as conducting experiments. 

Junk Drawer Physics

About the Book and Author

Bobby Mercer  has been a high school physics teacher for over 20 years.  He takes that knowledge and turns it into practical, hands-on experiments.   His assumption is that you have what you need right in your own home.

Turn a plastic cup into a Pinhole Camera using waxed paper, a rubber band, and a thumbtack. Build a swing wave machines using a series of washers suspended on strings from a yardstick.  Use a cork, string, and water-filled plastic bottle to create a simple Accelerometer.  Or construct your own Planetarium from an empty potato chip canister, construction paper, scissors, and a pin. 

What you Get

Six chapters divided over 194 pages.   

Chapter titles are

  1. Forces and Motion
  2. Energy
  3. Sound and Waves
  4. Light
  5. Electricity and Magnetism
  6. Fluids and Pressure

50 Experiments which include builds such as a cork accelereomter. ball blaster, straw oboe, Pringles Planetarium, No-touch race car, and ketchup diver.  The experiments all vary from each other which I really like.  You know how sometimes you can get a STEM book where they say x number of projects and then you find it’s project a that becomes b and in the end it just feels like one project with different steps to it.  Junk Drawer Physics doesn’t do that. 

One of the projects we made was the air horn.  We found the instructions very easy to follow and because we were using random items from around the house we were able to make two different ones that sounded quite different from each other. 

Junk Drawer Physics

Because they were different from each other we were able to expand our knowledge base as well, comparing the lower and higher notes we made.  This would be fascinating to do with a larger group and then see if we could make our own air horn musical group.  🙂 haha

 

Junk Drawer Physics

Most of the time pictures are used to help convey expectations for the project, but as you can see above, sometimes simple diagrams are used.

There is always a materials list that proceeds the directions for any given experiment.   

Junk Drawer Physics

The close of the experiment tells you why it happened, or what principle is being demonstrated.  This gives you time, if you choose not to read the explanation, to come up with your own explanation using deductive and logical reasoning. 

Junk Drawer Physics

My Thoughts

Today my son woke me up asking “Mom, for my hands on stuff today, can I do experiments out of Junk Drawer”?  Fridays is our “hands on plus do what’s important for you” day.  So for him to choose Junk Drawer Physics over taking apart electronics, working on his crossbow, or any of his other projects that he is working on, tells you what he thinks of it.   

Easy experiments that he can do on his own, figure out on his own, and if he can’t, tells him what he needs to know.  Makes it a winner in my eyes.

Age level?  It’s hard to say.  To me these experiments are great for youth 7 years old and up.  I’ve been doing science with my lad since he was very little so I have full confidence in his abilities. Although, I have seen in the grade 9/10 science courses I mark that, not all students have that same level of confidence.

It would be easy to make these experiments harder for highschool students by having them to define what principle the experiment is showing before revealing the science behind it.  Younger students might need to have the answer given to them, or be asked questions to help them figure it out on their own.     

Junk Drawer Physics

Junk Drawer Physics: 50 Awesome Experiments that don’t cost a thing.
Bobby Mercer
Chicago Review Press.
Softcover, 204 pages,
Physics, Science, Experiments,
Reviewed for Chicago Review Press.

disclosure

Review: Introduction to Robotics and Automation

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My son has an enjoyment of robotics, he’s taken a few courses over the years.  Last year he was fortunate enough to be able to an engineering course at a local business and was able to build his own robot.  This was almost the best thing ever. 🙂

This year I was looking at course from Innovator’s Tribe and offered to do a review in exchange for the course.  Mr. K agreed!  WOOT WOOT!  I want to tell you how much my lad has been enjoying this course.

The course: Introduction to Robotics and Automation.

Introduction to Robotics and Automation

Course Description

This exciting course introduces students to the modern world of robotics.  Using interactive lessons and exciting hands-on activities, students will learn how to design, build and program a virtual robot.

30 hours of learning material right at your fingertips. Easy login, Sidebar for lesson placement, units of study and encouragement to try something more. 

Introduction to Robotics and Automation

What you Get

A self-paced, self-contained, completely on-line (except for hands-on projects) that your student can do completely on their own.

Introduction to Robotics and Automation

Occasionally you will be directed to a video outside of the course.  Videos such as the one below.  One of the things I like about these referrals is that they open the door to viewing other videos on robotics.  My son would often tell me the things he was learning about.

The layout of each lesson is really obvious.   This is on the things my son really liked.  He knew what kind of lesson it was going to be just by checking the sidebar.  Lesson variations are: Multimedia, quiz, text, and video.  Activities are clearly labeled. 

Introduction to Robotics and Automation

The page is laid out in such a way that you can see where you are in the lesson by checking the sidebar, while your lesson plays on the mainscreen. 

Introduction to Robotics and Automation

Since this is a self-paced course, my son wanted to do all the book learning first.  This isn’t unusual for him.  He likes to learn the material well before trying it out in real life.   At this point he has completed all the “Book-learning” that has been created (there is more to come).  

Over the next three or four weeks he hopes to complete the hammer-bot and water clock.  He is hoping we can find some Arduino to work with.  He says it is really interesting and he wants to do it all himself.  So I have a project to complete.. FIND  SOME!

Our Thoughts

From my son: I found the course fun.  It was enjoyable. I learned names for robotic components which I really liked.  Knowing this kind of information  is great.   I would happily take another Mr. K class because he is good at explaining things and making them interesting. How the lessons are done with the different slides is good.  And how they have videos in the slides.  The web-page isn’t complicated, it’s easy to use. 

From Me: When they say this is a self-directed course, it’s exactly that.  My son would say “I’m doing innovators!”  And off he’d go.  If I asked him what he learned about (sometimes 15 minutes later, sometimes an hour later) he’d tell me, sometimes prefaced with “I’m sorry, I got interested in learning so I was watching other videos”. 

Do we recommend this course?  Definitely.   Just like the first course we took from them called Thinking Like An Engineer.  Well taught courses that engage the learner in a variety of formats to work with all learning styles.  Great teacher too!

Introduction to Robotics and Automation
Introduction to Robotics and Automation.
Innovator's Tribe.
Mr. Kroeplin (teacher)
Grades 5-9
On-line
Self-directed, robotics, automation,
disclosure

The Superpower Field Guide: Beavers

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OH!  What a fun book to review.  Seriously, just a hoot.  Learning about Beavers and seeing all the remarkable things about them.  Just a delightful read.  The book: The Superpower Field Guide: Beavers.

From the Cover

The first book in a new series, Beavers is a humorous, informative, and highly illustrated field guide written for middle-schoolers.  Take a look at an unsuspecting animal hero The Beaver.

What you Get

Humour written around highly informative text.  Elmer the beaver has 10 superpowers which we are given in lots of detail.   Some of his powers are his unstoppable fur, his ever-toiling tail, and his winter survival skills.

Each page shows colour in the illustrations.  I was delighted to see the colours suit a book about beavers.   We don’t find pinks and yellows, but rather the blues, greens and browns that would naturally pervade a beavers habitat. 

Every so often you’ll come across a quiz, making sure the reader is paying attention for after all, the goal is to learn about an amazing animal.  So pay attention and rock those quizzes!  🙂   They aren’t hard, but they do cover the super power at hand.

My Thoughts

When I first clapped my eyes on Beavers I thought WOOHOO!   A book about a quintessential Canadian animal!   It’s even on our nickel!  You know what I discovered?  Beavers aren’t just an animal for Canada!  (yeah, I kinda knew that but now I know the nitty-gritty details).  🙂 

If you have a love of Canada, an interest in beavers, or perhaps you are studying mammals… check out Beavers. Learn their superpowers and be amazed, because beavers are really interesting critters!

Beavers
Rachel Poliquin
Nicolas John Frith (illustrator)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Series: The Superpower Field Guide
96 Pages, hardcover, 9 years +
Biology, Science, Canada, Beavers, North America
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
Click image for Amazon Link
disclosure

Sharks Never Sleep

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HEY!   Did you know that sharks never sleep?   I know… weird eh?  But seriously, sharks need to keep moving in order to breathe. This is one of many fascinating facts about sharks that you will learn in Sharks Never Sleep.  You will also learn about real life shark attacks, how people are trying to protect both sharks and people and the varied opinions about sharks that abound.  

From the Cover

A Gripping Investigation into our complex relationship of fear and fascination with sharks.  In an attempt combat fear with facts, author Brendon McAloon, takes us on a journey around the world in search of true stories of extraordinary first-hand encounters with these oceanic predators.  Travel from Australia to the United States, South Africa and beyond.  Meet with scientists, conservationists, shark-attack survivors, shark lovers and shark haters.  Meet fear with fascination. 

What You Get:

Four parts make up the contents of this tome.  

Part one focuses on shark attacks.  Fear rides these pages. 

Part two presents us with not only the shark haters, but those who love sharks as well.  I was delighted to see the Shark Lady profiled. 

Part three profiles encounters that people had with shark.  This section also contains photos pertaining to details given in this book.   

Part four helps us to further understand there are no easy answers.  How does one protect a fierce predator, and yet defend those who use the waters those predators live in?   No easy answers.  Culling, Shark Nets, Hunting bans, Beach closures, and Monitoring sharks.  More research is needed to determine what will work best.

My Thoughts

Mr. McAloon presents us with many cases of shark attacks, show-casing well the need to more study into the whys of increased shark attacks.   He helps us to understand why there is such a divide between protecting these apex predators and simply culling them. 

He shows well why the divide exists… if only because there is no simple answer to “the shark problem” at waterfronts throughout the world.  Human activity doesn’t help either. 

Do I recommend it?   

This book would be a great addition to a study on sharks.  Helping the student see in stark detail why this is such a divisive topic.   It’s not what I call an easy read.  It’s not fun to read about men who hunt sharks with delight, nor to read about sharks that kill. Is it necessary?   Yes, because that is how we broaden our understanding of the issues surrounding sharks and shark attacks. 

Sharks Never Sleep: first-hand encounters with killers of the sea
Brendan McAloon
Hardie Grant Books
240 pages, middle school, trade paperback
Sharks, Ecology, Marine Life, Animals, biology
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Click on image for amazon link.
disclosure

Learning Electronics from a Clock Radio

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Do you remember we took apart a couple of telephones a bit back?  Well, last week we started to dismantle a clock radio. Wow.. it was just so very interesting do to this, a great hands on way to learning electronics. 

We only had the one clock radio, so we shared our discoveries with each other.  Join us in learning electronics from a clock radio, won’t you?

Learning electronics from a clock radio

Okay, so this is what we did.  We took this clock radio and figured out how to take off the outside of it (basically just needed to undo some screws).

Once we got the cover off we took a really good look at the internal parts.   

We took what we learned from the telephone and found the resistors, diodes and capacitors.   We also found some… wire coil things we needed to look up.  Learned they were inductors.  And we found a transformer too!  OH!  and I mustn’t forget the really thin copper wire wrap!  We couldn’t figure out how to detach it so are saving that for another day. 

OH, that thing with the ON-tech on it?  I looked up that number and learned it was a transformer.  The lad figured how to get it out of its’ housing.  It’s gone into our keep pile.

Digital Display

He was very intrigued by the digital display and managed to get it out of the clock radio.   Unfortunately he was unable to get it to work.  He wants to see if Dad can help him get it working as he has plans for it it he can!

Even though he couldn’t get the digital readout to work, he did check out what capacitors, diodes and resistors do.  It was actually quite fascinating.    Here is the capacitor one that he did.  It’s not the best, but I tried.

Oh I should tell you what he used to test the components out.  He has a battery pack with a black and red wire.  He also has some resistors (I think) and he would simply connect the component he was testing to the wires and see what happened.   No chance to electrocute himself or his mother.  🙂  The idea made him laugh though, and then he explained his reasoning really well and all was good. 

In our Remaining Time:

What else did we have time for…. OH, it was a tough job but I managed to get the speaker unattached from the plastic housing.  WOW.. it was stuck on with some rather tough glue.   To get it off it took the two of use to pry a screwdriver underneath and break a clip.  Then it was just a matter of brawn over glue. 🙂

See!   We did get the motherboard (I think that’s what you call it) out of the plastic housing.   The lad and I clipped out a d1 and d2, three resistors, and two capacitors.   We hoped to get to the diodes but ran out of time.   

The lower the resistor the brighter it made the led bulb.  The capacitors made it gradually brighter and the d1 and d2 only worked in one direction. 

That’s all we managed this past Friday, check out our resources eh?  Maybe you’ll learn a bit more like we did!  🙂

Resources

We used these sites: 

Role of a capacitor.

List of electronic components.

As well as our book: 

I’m going to check if my library has these books, or at least books like them.