A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

STEM

Creative Friday: Junk Drawer Engineering

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Do you like doing STEM Challenges with your students or children?   Aren’t they fun to do?   Do you sometimes get concerned that it will cost you an arm and a leg to do STEM activities?    Bobby Mercer comes to your rescue in this great book I’m reviewing today called Junk Drawer Engineering.

Three Chapters entitled Energy, Structures, Waves.  Each chapter has several projects listed such as windmill challenge, egg catch or mirror, mirror on the wall.

Each project lists what you need and then walks you step by step what you need to do to complete the project along with pictures. 

The pictures are all in black and white, but they are clear enough to show the builders what they need to do.  How to bend the paperclip, or how to attach the elastic and so forth.   Little things that might not be as easy to explain in words are readily apparent in a picture. 

I found that for many of the projects he provided images for how you might engineer the project a bit differently.   For instance using the bottom of a can or a ninja star or a plastic cup to make the windmill.   Bobby Mercer also explains the science behind the projects and gives age appropriate ways to guide the student engineer.  

These different STEM projects are a boon to the learning of any middle school and up student.  Upper elementary students could complete many of the projects as well.

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

Reviewed for: Chicago Review Press

Where can you find this helpful book?
Amazon.ca: Junk Drawer Engineering: 25 Construction Challenges That Don’t Cost a Thing (Junk Drawer Science)

Amazon.com:  Junk Drawer Engineering: 25 Construction Challenges That Don’t Cost a Thing (Junk Drawer Science)

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Highlights of the Week May 14-20

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 In no particular order, some of the highlights of the week

Hubby preached a sermon in this church again.

New roof put up on one of the rabbitry buildings.   I had gone into the rabbitry on Wednesday or Thursday this week to do something and spotted one of my girls panting, so promptly removed the winter covering tarp.  This necessitated a building of a wooden roof.   We’ve done tarps one them for the past few years, and found last year the tarps were ripping.  This one was the worst so we did it first, I hope to do the other in two weeks.   I put the lattice sides on it last year and it greatly improved airflow which was a good thing.    Good to have the rabbits cooler again. We worked as a family to put it all together… cutting, drilling, moving etc.  busy hard work.  Hubby put up a “thing” to help with taking the bed off the truck as well…that was hard work man…digging post holes…he has way too many blisters.

My buttercups are blooming!!!!

We’ve been working our way through the human body and we often add videos.  Currently we are on the teeth.  So we watched what the lad said “this was a good video mom, I learned a lot and do a bunch of things wrong”.  We totally ignored all the product placement stuff.

Working on our Physics STEM kit.  We learned about plumb lines and the center of gravity.   It was rather neat to teach about how a person’s center of gravity changes how they move and how that affects doing things like Karate, adding stability and such like.   Seeing the practical use of science in everyday life was a “wow” moment for the lad and provoked great discussion.

Have you seen my beautiful lilac bush?

Working our way through the Hawaiian Frog from ArtAchieve.  Next week we are going to add colour to him.  Hopefully he’ll turn out well, I’m a bit concerned that I made him too small.  The lad wasn’t ready for me to take a picture of his rendition.

Anyways, those are the highlights of MY week, what were the highlights of yours?

Reviews
Secrets and Sequences.    A graphic novel with an interesting approach to coding.
Stick it To ‘Em.   A fun book teaching about stickers and how to make them.  Sass and Style.
Tournament of Champions.   A Rip and Red basketball story.

Everything Else:
Truth – a five minute Friday word prompt post, a poem.
All are treated the same, sharing the inheritance.   Ezekiel 47 devotional.
Cherry Jello Cheesecake.. mm.. YUM!!!
R is for Raving, Rabid, Rabbits.   An alphabet blogging post. 
Keep Living a Life of Faith.  Ezekiel 47 Devotional. 
Taking your camera to Canada.   A fun book on Canada.
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.  A hymn Study.
God’s Continued Protection.  Devotional on Ezekiel 46.

Linking up at the Following:

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

STEM: Building a robotic hand

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Ever since we build a hand out of paper and yarn my lad has been searching for something, almost ANYTHING that would work better.  So imagine our delight when Tinker crates arrived and the topic was “Robotic Hand!”

With the use of elastic, brands, eye screws and foam…one working robotic hand was made.

I loved seeing the look of concentration on his face.

Tinker Crates give clear instructions on how to make their crates.  As long as one carefully reads EVERYTHING you can make the STEM project without any issues.  I find them affordable, and the lad likes putting them together so it’s a win-win.  

It comes with a handy tinkerzine with greatly expands the learning done.  We have a couple of other projects left in this kit to do.  We just didn’t get to them today.

The lad has had a great deal of fun experimenting with the robotic hand.

I really wish I could have videoed the conversation between the lad and his dad afterwards.
Figuring out why the robotic hand doesn’t work as well as a human hand.
Seeing how they would change it to make it work better if they could.
It was just a great conversation and one of the top reasons why I like to do these tinker crates with my lad, the conversations with my lad.

That and this statement
“This isn’t homeschooling.  This is fun!”

If you follow this affiliate link, you can get $10 off your first Tinker Crate eh?

Oddly Run Week

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This week has felt very odd to me.  Nothing seemed  to go the way I wanted it to all because we did things differently this week due my body not being happy with me.  

I’ve felt frustrated too often this week.
BUT TODAY.. ah..glorious sunshine and .. it was JUST GOOD.  🙂   And that is indeed a marvellous thing.  🙂

Monday
I KNOW I KNOW.. you are expecting me to say.. off to gramma’s today only… we didn’t.  That nasty bug that ran through my system over the past couple of weeks…. decided that it was Going to FIGHT ME HARD on leaving my system once and for all.. so we didn’t go to London.  Thoughts were.. we’d go on Tuesday.
The lad worked hard on his schooling, getting done by 130.  We played Settlers of Catan with me wrapped up in a cuddle blanket…. I still managed to win though.  🙂

Finished up a human body experiment.   Turned out way better than I thought it would…but in honesty was rather gross to deal with.  The lad wouldn’t touch it so I helped him out.

Tuesday.
The bathroom remained my friend today.  No trip to London.
The lad was learning about exponents today in Math.   Doing well but occasionally getting confused.
Played Settlers of Catan again.  Hubby won today.
I took pictures of almost all the for sale stuff today and will be busy putting them up on the for sale site for London homeschoolers.

Wednesday.
BUSY BUSY BUSY at the foodbank with a cup of hot chocolate at a friends afterwards.  The lad played with her cat, taught it to do a high five. 
Surprised the lad when we got home and said “you’re done for the day”.  Thing is…he worked hard at the foodbank, was good spirited and helpful.  That’s worth something in my book.   He whooped and promptly gathered up some boxes and made a cat playhouse.   (little did he know that he was still learning!).   🙂

We played Saboteur today.   Lad had karate.

Thursday:
This morning we managed to do some schooling.
Since we didn’t go to London on Monday, we decided to head off there today.   We had fun pokemon going in Victoria Park… what fun we caught some new pokemon.  

I dropped a bunny and some books off in London for sale.   It is SO Good to sell some of our old schooling books and some review books.  SUCH a good thing.  Helps our pocketbook too you know?  🙂

We headed home in time for supper and for the lad to go to Cadets.

Friday: 

We had plans to make a cloud, but that ended up not happening.  The lad has been totally into doing his research on the CN Tower.  We’ve been learning so much about this Canadian Icon.   You can find his report here. 

We also worked on one of our STEM projects…today the lad had a satisfaction… a robotic hand that worked!

Saturday:
I rushed around this morning putting together another book order for a lady to pick up.   Then we headed out for the Health Fair in Lucan.  WOOT WOOT the lady who makes the skin cream my lad uses for his occasional eczema was there so we were able to buy a big tub of it.    We had thought we’d need to go to London to sell some books but some young children needed a nap so that didn’t happen.  Perhaps Monday.  🙂

Reviews:
 Same Kind of Different as Me for Kids.  Junior version of adult adult.
The Painting-In Book. Cute art book for children.
Undefeated. Loved this book.

Faith and Life:
Word Prompt Post on the word weak: You are my strength when I am weak.
Book Series: Parenting.  Are you an ambassador?
Recipe: Homemade Marinara Sauce. 
Song Study: I am Not my own.

Homeschooling:
Guestposted at the Crew Blog.  You can find my post on Why It’s important to study the Philosophers of Old. 
STEM: The making of a sword.  It’s a great thing to make, is a sword.
Lab Report: Bones in Vinegar.  
E is for Edgewalk. Tourist walk at CN Tower.
Postcard Toronto: A guest post for castle view academy.

   Linking up at the following Places:
 
Homeschool Highlights.
Family Friday Link Ups:
Weird Unsocialized homeschoolers: Weekly Wraps Up.
Homeschool blog and tell. 

STEM: The Making of a Sword

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What does cardboard, duct tape, a dowel and a ball of yarn have to do with each other?

It’s a weapon for an 11 year old boy that’s what it is.   My son has been making or using swords for a very long time.   As he gets older they are getting more elaborate with better details.  He has a weapons book that is frequently a source of inspiration.

Take one dowel, add some cardboard and wrap it with yarn.  Judicious use of duct tape is must.

Make sure you craft your cardboard carefully so you can make a good hilt.  Protecting one’s hand while swinging a sword is vitally important.   A good grip equally so.

Take time to form your foam to make your sword blade.  Think enough to provide cushioning, thing enough to not look horrible. 

Safety is very important…no accidental injuries needed.

After applying the foam to either side of the dowel there was a space in either side that just didn’t look right.  Here is where some thin foam came into play.

And of course, no sword is complete without the knight to go with it eh?

He used to have boots and leg protectors but they just proved a pain to deal with so he discarded them.  His shield can take quite a beating. His gauntlets provide a good range of motion and give him more protection then you’d think.  

The sword, unless swung with determined force, doesn’t hurt when it hits, but is long enough that we need to be mindful of lamps, candles and overhead lights.  🙂  I’m looking forward to the spring when I can use my scimitar the lad is going to make me, against the lad’s sword.  🙂

The Lad is getting practical experience in how difficult it would be for students of the knightly arts to control what their sword was doing.    He’s built a sheath for it (needs a bit of fine tuning so no pictures allowed).

I love how my lad will spend hours creating, changing, adding, and learning about the armour and weapons of old.   Doing STEM and not even realizing it.   AND it works and works well.  He’s due for a refit of his chest-plate etc and he’s gone through a growth spurt and is finding it just a tad bit tight now….  

So tell me… would you want to face this young warrior in battle?? 

If my son has peaked your interest, some books that might appeal.  Affiliate links used to help my family without cost to you.
 

STEM: The Building of DaVinci’s Clock

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The other day my son and I made a model of DaVinci’s clock, we learned a lot and had a great deal of fun.

I picked up this kit on sale one day thinking it would be great to build some day and it was!

The kit was made completely of plastic, included everything except the coins needed as a weight.

This instructions were clear but we learned it was good to both read the words AND look at the pictures.

The lad needed to work out how to get the clock to keep time.  This video doesn’t show that accuracy, but it at least shows the clock working.
 
  

A couple of the big things we learned was 

  1. Hands off mom, this boy will do it himself!!
  2. Oops… reading the instructions AND looking at the pictures helps to prevent mistakes.
  3. Asking for help when needed is an excellent thing to do.
  4. IT WORKS!!!!!!

But other things that we learned:

  1. Da Vinci didn’t actually invent the clock, clocks had been around for a LONG time before DaVinci came on the scene and were becoming more accurate.
  2. Da Vinci’s major innovation was to have springs, rather than weights operate his clock.
  3. Leonardo included diamonds and semi-precious stones in his design of the clock

We have a goal to make this water clock one day.. possibly next week. 

Some websites we used to help us learn:
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Inventions. 
Civil Machines.  

STEM: 3D St. Peter’s Basilica

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I know that STEM is more than building 3D puzzles, it’s doing math, engineering, science and technology.  Using all those things.  I get that.  🙂  The way I see it though is… 3D Puzzles are engineering and technology.  The science eh… perhaps a bit iffy and the math well.. not really other than the need to finesse the puzzle as sometimes the pieces don’t fit perfectly.   So how do I add that to make this a proper STEM activity?

We can pick up the science and the math through reading and video can we not?

For instance I liked this video because it taught us to take care when looking at history, that looking at it from different perspectives broadens our knowledge.

And we can see the science and math of how they were built though videos like this:
Which broadens our understanding as we build a 3D Puzzle. 

What did we learn about St. Peter’s Basilica?

  •  commissioned by Pope Julius II
  • started in 1506 and completed in 1615
  • originally designed around the shape of a Greek cross, this was later changed to a Latin cross 
  • Michelango was a chief architect

And because video is more interesting to listen to and occasionally watch while building heres’s another video.

So building a 3D puzzle can indeed be a STEM project. 🙂   You just need to work around what it isn’t eh?  🙂

This build wasn’t an easy one to do. The pieces were sticky and quite a few of them needed to be trimmed in order to fit into the holes probably.  It tested the patience of the lad and I quite a bit.