A Net in Time

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STEM

Junk Drawer Geometry

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Pretty soon my lad will be taking a geometry course, so imagine how delighted I was to get a review copy of Junk Drawer Geometry.  I now have 50 hands-on activities to help my son make sense of polygons, mobius strips and angles. 

Junk Drawer Geometry

From the cover:

Geometry is a hands-on subject.  What better way to explore the concepts of area, perimeter, and volume than actually measuring area, perimeter, and volume?  With this helpful resource, you will polygons out of pipe cleaners and flexible drinking straws, explore Mobius strips made from index cards, model the Pythagorean theorem using cheese crackers, and much more.  Junk Drawer Geometry proves that you don’t need high-tech equipment to comprehend math concepts – just what you can find around the house or in your recycling bin. 

What you Get:

Divided into three chapters

  • Geometry tools: 14 sections such as Pencil Compass, Right Angle String, Unit Circle Glove etc.
  • Geometry labs: 18 sections such as Inscribed Angle Circles, Straw Triangles, Thumbs Up etc.
  • Fun Geometry activities: 18 sections such as Math Triangles, Circle Art, Tangrams etc.

There’s not an area of Geometry that this book doesn’t cover.   Shapes, theorems, tangents, graphs, compasses, calipers, area and volume and so much more!

It was ever so helpful that each project comes with a materials list.   I found that most materials are easily found around the house, OR easy to find at your local dollar or hardware store. 

Junk Drawer Geometry

Step by Step instructions walk you through exactly what you need to do.  The pictures clearly showing what you need to do, eliminating confusion. 

Junk Drawer Geometry

I particularly appreciated that math behind the activity was clearly explained.  From understanding the importance of circles, the relevance of figuring out area, why it works to your hand to measure items at a distance, and why marshmallows work so well to understanding volume. 

Junk Drawer Geometry

My Thoughts: 

Junk Drawer Geometry follows a similar pattern to Junk Drawer Engineering.  Grayscale images with clear instructions make it so easy for the student to complete the activity.  There is an excellent range of activities, some very simple, and others that are a bit more complicated. Step by Step instructions along with understanding the math behind the activity.  Robert Mercer brings geometry into the real world for his readers.   All of the activities are quite doable and you should have no problem finding the materials to make them.   Definitely worth adding to your study of Geometry. 

 

Junk Drawer Engineering: 25 Construction Challenges that don’t cost a thing Bobby Mercer Chicago Review Press Ages 9 and up 208 pages Type: STEM Challenges, Trade Paperback Series: Junk Drawer Science

 

Junk Drawer Geometry: 50 Awesome Activities that don’t cost a thing
Bobby Mercer
Chicago Review Press
Ages 9+, 208 pages
STEM Challenges, Math, Geometry, Hands-on
Trade Paperback
Series: Junk Drawer Science

 

Reviewed for Chicago Review Press.

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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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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: Homemade Cat Toy

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Did I ever show you what my lad made the other day?

homemade cat toy

He was searching for something to do for his Friday project and decided to make a cat toy for our new cat Lizzie.

 

I was surprised at the good work my lad did, taking things that Miss Lizzie liked and incorporating them into a toy that moved, had interesting bits, and actually intrigued her.

miss lizzie our cat

He used green craft wire, pom poms, pipe cleaners, hot glue and yarn to make a safe, but effective toy for a very curious cat.

Need Something to Do?

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Every other week the Homeschool Review Crew puts together what we call a round up.   A round up is a post centered around a single topic that bloggers can interpret however they choose.  Sometimes I have material that I can use from the past so I can join in and other times I have NOTHING, and not enough time to come up with something worth while.   Not all topics work eh?  Once in a while a topic comes up like the one this week that just intrigue.  The topic What Can We Do When It’s: too Hot, Cold or Raining? I thought it would be fun to share some of the hands-on things we do around here to keep ourselves busy.

Need something to do? Activities to keep children busy

How Birds Fly.  Building a model incites questions and looking more.

Learning how the Da Vinci Clock works.  This was just fascinating!

 

We do art!   Sometimes it’s different than what we planned, but it’s all good you know?

We learn how to manipulate gears and wheels and make things.  Like with the gears box.

We sometimes just pull out a random thought and learn things on youtube.   Sometimes they are highly educational

And other times they are just fun.

My son has a big love for ants, and a lot of his free time is spent building habitats for them, feeding them, catching them and so forth.   I’ve learned WAY more than I’ve wanted to about the inner workings of ants, but it’s great to see him so well engaged.  These ants are in the process of making their first homes.  Test tubes, cotton, water, honey and a straw ….it’s an ants life for sure!  🙂Ant Habitats

Check out what others have to say about this topic by visiting the Homeschool Review Crew.

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!

A day when mom’s away

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Today I had a whole bunch of work to do out of the house.

I conferred with my lad this morning over the tasks he would complete over the day.   I wasn’t sure what time I would be back, but trusted him to get things done while Dad got a few things done around the house.

Before I left my lad volunteered to shovel the drive and bring in the garbage bins.   He was so quick about it I couldn’t get a pic of working away.  He did a good job too.   The selfish part of me, as I got into the car was thinking, “I have to teach that boy to clean off the cars too!”  Yeah… I know!  Selfish!A homeschooling day when Mom's Away

Anyways, I headed out to do the work I had to get done, leaving my lad heading into “build a cat toy that bounces” for his “build something or tear it apart time”.

He didn’t quite succeed in making a cat toy that bounces but he built a toy that intrigued Milo a lot and Lizzie a wee bit.

 

and Here’s Miss Lizzie, sorry for the occasional poor video quality.  She wasn’t quite as certain as Mr. Milo.

He washed some fleece blankets for me as well.  He was supposed to dry them as well… but.. making this got into his mind instead.

Flybird bird. Tinker crate building box.He did his reading.  Right now he’s reading “Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein”.  He tells me “it’s good”.  I think for his next “school reading book” I’ll give him They Lost their heads  as a book to read.

And for a Do it Differently Friday I think he managed to keep himself pretty busy.