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Exploring Creation With Human Anatomy and Physiology Review

Apologia Educational Ministries is one of our favorite homeschool curriculum publishers. One of the reasons we love Apologia so much is that their curriculum gives glory to Father God our Creator, and they teach all of their subjects, including science, from a Christian worldview.

We are excited to tell you about our experience using the Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology by Apologia for our science studies.

Human Anatomy and Physiology

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology

1 year Science Curriculum

Text

Audio CD (Text Read Aloud)

Notebooking Journal

Junior Notebooking Journal

Apologia has created four components for this curriculum. Students typically use three of the four components depending on their age and skill level. There is a Text book, an Audio CD, and two different age/skill options for the student Notebooking Journal.

Text:

The text book is a hardback book with 265 illustrated pages. This curriculum covers the anatomy and physiology of the human body. This course text book is suggested for use with kids in Kindergarten through 6th grade. Younger students may need the course read to them or if they have begun to learn to read but still need support, they can follow along with the Audio CD, where other students who are strong readers may not need the additional support.

Also older students (junior and senior high) may find this course beneficial too if they haven’t previously studied this material or to use it as review. Apologia has other science courses they recommend for older students. However it is my opinion that this introductory course is very informative, contains lots of pictures, and covers a large amount of material that students of all ages (even adults) will benefit from reading.

Lessons:

There are 14 HUGE lesson modules covered in this curriculum. Each lesson module has two full weeks of lessons and science experiments within and is suggested to be used at least twice a week. At this pace, it is expected for the curriculum to last about 28 +/- weeks or a full school year.

Lesson Modules covered include:

Lesson 1: Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
Lesson 2: The Skeletal System
Lesson 3: The Muscular System
Lesson 4: The Digestive and Renal Systems
Lesson 5: Health and Nutrition
Lesson 6: The Respiratory System
Lesson 7: Life in the Blood
Lesson 8: The Cardiovascular System
Lesson 9: The Nervous and Endocrine Systems
Lesson 10: The Nervous System Extended
Lesson 11: Your Senses
Lesson 12:The Integumentary System
Lesson 13: The Lymphatic and Immune Systems
Lesson 14: Growth and Development

Contained within each lesson are components that encourage narration (both written and oral retelling of what has been learned), “Try This” mini-experiments, notebooking journal activities, a personal person project (a paper body model), and at the end of each lesson, students complete various projects and experiments. Each lesson covers different information, but follows the same overall format.

A “Materials List” is included in the front of the Text book and each lesson also lists out the specific items needed to complete the projects and experiments. There are suppliers for materials if you want a pre-made kit too. To further the learning, students are given access to a course website for what is called “book extras” if students desire to dig deeper into learning more than what is covered in the text.

Audio CD

The Audio CD is an audio recording of the course read aloud by the author, Jeannie Fulbright. Using this CD enhances the learning even more because it gives another way for the brain to receive and remember the information.

This CD is beneficial for students who are auditory learners who prefer using more than just a textbook, is helpful for slow readers, or others who may have learning disabilities that make reading difficult. This Audio CD is also great for the whole family to listen and enjoy together too.

This is an MP3-CD and in order to listen to it, you must play it in an MP3-compatible CD player or on a computer.

Student Notebooking Journals:

Apologia offers two age/skill level student journals with this course to choose from. One of the journals is called the Anatomy Notebooking Journal and one is called the Junior Anatomy Notebooking Journal (note the word “Junior” in front of the other words).

Both notebooking journals are huge soft cover illustrated spiral bound books. They both have a suggested schedule for the school year. They both are filled with worksheets and fun hands on activities and projects. They both cover similar materials and review the material learned in the text book lessons.

The Anatomy Notebooking Journal (designed for grades 3-6) contains 202 activity and review pages, plus 65 mini-book (cut, fold, glue, fill in the blank) pages and template pages.

The Junior Anatomy Notebooking Journal (designed for grades K-2) contains 230 activity, coloring, and review pages, plus 67 mini-book (cut, fold, and glue) pages and template pages.

Both notebooking journals are filled with activity and review worksheets and mini-books and templates. Sections in the student journal include:

Lesson Plan Suggested Schedule
Fascinating Facts
What Do You Remember? Review Questions
Notbooking Assignments, Ativities, and Projects
Scripture Copywork
Vocabulary Crosswords
Project Pages
Cut and Fold Miniature Books
More To Explore (experiments and activities, additional book and DVD suggestions)
Field Trip Sheets
Final Review: 50 Review Questions that can be answered orally or in writing.
Answer key included.

The main difference in the two journals is that the regular student Anatomy Notebooking Journal has a higher level of writing expected on the assignments and projects, and it uses challenging crossword puzzles to go over vocabulary words and definitions. There is less writing assignments in the Junior Anatomy Notebooking Journal, flashcard style mini-books and simple crossword puzzles are used to review the vocabulary words (students cut out the word and glue it like a flap onto the definition), and the Junior version includes lots of coloring pages.

Our Experience

We love using Apologia products in our homeschool. I am thankful for these resources to help teach my kids all about Father God’s creation, the human body.

We were sent all four components of this course for this review. We used both of the student journals. My 9 year old son used the Junior Anatomy Notebooking Journal and my 13 year old son used the Anatomy Notebooking Journal. My other children enjoyed watching their brothers do various science experiments and have requested to join in the learning fun. I intend to purchase additional journals for my other children to use for this coming school year.

Here are just a few examples of our Anatomy and Physiology learning adventure. These pictures are a few examples of what my kids learned in lessons 2, 4, 5, 6, and 10. Each lesson module covers different information, but follows the overall same format.

Text and Audio CD Lessons

My 9 year old son starts out each lesson with the Text book and Audio CD. He places the CD into the computer and uses his earbuds to listen to the lesson.

A menu pops up on the screen to help you choose the lesson, but there are no pictures or video, so he has to follow along in the text book.

My 13 year old starts out each lesson with his text book and journal. He is a strong reader and doesn’t prefer to use the Audio CD.

However, my 9 year old loves using the Audio CD and it has helped him gain more understanding and helped reinforce how things are pronounced and helped him move through the material at a good pace.

Try This Experiments

The kids can pause within the lesson as needed, or go back after they are done reading, to complete the suggested “Try This” experiments scattered through out the lesson.

Digestive System – measuring length of small intestines:

Digestive System – stomach simulation:

What Do You Remember?

Then we do the “What Do You Remember?” narrative. These discussion questions help summarize the lesson and encourage the kids to put what they have learned into their own words.

Journal Activities

Next we completed the Notebooking Journal activities. If you don’t have the Apologia Notebooking Journals, you can answer the Text questions from the lesson and do the suggested activity in just a regular notebook.

However, the Apologia Notebooking Journals have so much more to offer. They are filled with pre-printed worksheets and hands on activities.

I would recommend you get these journals to go with the learning experience.

Some of the worksheets included are scientific speculation forms, project forms, fascinating facts, vocabulary mini-books, body organ mini-books, coloring pages, vocabulary crossword puzzles, diagrams to label, bible scripture copy work, and more.

Copywork examples from my 9 year old’s journal:

Copywork and Vocabulary Crossword examples from my 13 year old’s journal:

Personal Person Project

Next we added the body part we learned about to the Personal Person Project in the Anatomy and Junior Anatomy Notebooking Journals. If you don’t have a pre-made journal, there are directions so you can make your own person and body organ systems and add them to a homemade journal. At the end of most of the lessons, a new body part gets added.

Experiments

The last thing to complete is the main experiment (s) or project at the end of the lesson. These experiments are in addition to the many “Try This” experiments scattered through out the lessons. There is at least one main experiment or project at the end of each lesson, and sometimes two or more. The experiments and projects at the end of each lesson communicate the overall learning experience and knowledge of the lesson.

Respiratory System Experiments – 1) lung and diaphragm model 2) visual lung capacity:

A Few More Explorations and Learning Fun:

We had a few props on hand to use as models. It makes learning even more fun and interesting for kids to have a lesson related prop next to them while they study.

We used a magnifying glass to examine a plastic skeleton, plastic lungs and respiratory system, and a plastic skull and brain.

The kids made a head with a face from a plastic skull, playdough for connective tissue, a pencil sharpener nose, bouncy balls for eyes, a plastic mini-brain from a game, and a Mr. Potato Head mustache. They played around with their model they created and also used a magnifying glass to check it out.

They have also used playdough for skin and covered the skull with it. But I didn’t get a picture of it. I think we will come up with something else we can use for skin, perhaps we can find a lightly colored but transparent plastic bag material. They also have a huge plastic tooth, a plastic liver, and a few other props not pictured that they used for some of their investigations.

Materials

Several materials are needed to complete the experiments. In the front of the Textbook is a Master List of items needed for each chapter. Most of these items for experiments are easily acquired either from your own cabinets and pantry or from the local store. In addition to the items you need for experiments for this course, you might also have some things on hand you can use a props such as toys, puzzles, games, or books on your shelves that can enhance the learning too.

However, there are various pre-made science supply kits sold by different suppliers online that contain most of the items all in one kit or box. These kits can save you time and makes doing these experiments very simple when you have everything you need all in one box and you don’t have to go and find each item. You can find these science kit suppliers by doing a a quick google search for “Apologia Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Science Kit”.

Final Thoughts:

My family has truly enjoyed using Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. This course covers a lot of information. The Textbook, Notebooking Journals and Audio CD are well made. This course encourages lots of hands on suggestions and explorations which makes learning fun for kids.

Apologia Educational Ministries offers wonderful science programs for students of all ages. Their curriculum has won numerous awards and is well respected in the homeschool community. I would encourage other homeschool families to check out these courses, and see what products Apologia has to offer to meet their needs.

Check out this video to learn more about Apologia Science courses. Apologia has many more wonderful products in other subject areas too.

Here are a few links to other Apologia products we have reviewed in our home.

Exploring Creation With Marine Biology

Internship for High School Credit

Where To Buy Exploring Creation With Human Anatomy and Physiology

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Text (for grades K – 6)

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Junior Notebooking Journal (for grades K – 3)

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology Notebooking Journal (for grades 3 and up)

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD (audio recording of the text)

Social Media

Be sure to check out Apologia Educational Ministries social media links for all the latest news, products, learning ideas, and special sales they have to offer.

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Homeschool Review Crew

Check out what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using products from Apologia in their homes.

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MathArt Natureglo’s eScience Review

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My kids are enjoying courses from NatureGlo’s eScience. We were recently given a subscription to review their MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle courses, and we tried out some of their other products too.

NatureGlo’s eScience offers several online live classes and pre-recorded classes that you can do at your own pace. If you purchase the live class format, you also get access to the pre-recorded course for one year. The whole family can use the pre-recorded classes for one price. Most classes are taught for kids ages 10 and older and some classes are geared for specific ages such as highschool age.

The classes are taught by Gloria Brooks, the founder of Nature Glo and NatureGlo’s eScience. Gloria has extensive knowledge, and she is the creator of several curriculum products. She teaches from a “Neutral Worldview” meaning she doesn’t focus on “Creationism” or “Evolution” in explaining the universe. She has been teaching and working in education with all grades in the public, private, and homeschool education settings since 1997 and has been offering online courses since 2011.

Some of the online courses NatureGlo’s eScience has to offer include:

Marine Biology,
Herpatology,
Botany,
Rocks and Minerals,
MathArt.

You can subscribe to courses in several different ways. Some of the options available include:

5 – 6 week Class Bundles
4 – 6 week Class Bundles
3 -1-3 week 12 Class Bundle
Single classes too.

Be sure to check out the Course Catalog for a list with descriptions of all her classes.

Math Art Online 4-Class Bundle

The MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle is made up of 4 courses that last 6 weeks each.

Math Connections With The Real World
MathArt Patterns In Nature
MathArt in Ancient Cultures
MathArt in the Arts & Sciences

MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World:

For the purpose of this review, we will focus on one of the classes in the MathArt 4-Class Bundle called MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World.

Math Connections With The Real World

There are 6 Lessons in this course that are meant to be completed about 1 lesson per week. However you can go as fast or as slow as your student needs to go. This course is designed for students age 12 and older.

Each lesson in this course contains videos, power points, study guides, downloads, suggested activities, suggested research projects to further the learning, theme connections with various subjects (Math, Art, Geography, Archaeology, Music, History, etc) and quizzes.

Lesson 1: Introduction & History of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Numbers

Main Lesson Downloads & Lesson Videos with NatureGlo
Lesson Activity – Math is Fun: The Golden Ratio
Quizlet – Introduction to the Golden Ratio & the Fibonacci Numbers

Lesson #2 – The Golden Number & Fibonacci in Art, Architecture & Nature

Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo
Activity – Math is Fun: Nature, The Golden Ratio,and Fibonacci too!
Project: Golden Ratio Do It Yourself
Going Beyond – Web Resources, Projects & Activities & Videos
Quizlet

Lesson #3 – The Fibonacci Numbers in Nature

Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo
Fibonacci Cookies Activity
Video (6:24) – The Magic of Fibonacci
Going Beyond – Web Resources, Projects, Activities & Videos
Quizlet

Lesson #4 – The History & the Golden Ratio of the Great Pyramid

Pre-lesson Activity – The Great Pyramid of Egypt
Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo
History Connection – TEDed Video (4:27) – History vs. Cleopatra
Exploration – Discover & Explore and Ancient Egyptian Tomb (Interactive)
Literature Connection – The Prince and the Sphinx
Art Connection – Video (8:00) – Egyptian Art History
Music Connection – Video (3:21) – Tomb Raiders
Going Beyond – Web resources, Videos & Projects
Quizlet

Lesson #5 – Phi & Quasicrystals

Pre-lesson Activity – Explaining What Quasicrystals Are
Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo – Phi & Quasicrystals
Video (10:18) – Professor Dan Schectman, Discoverer of Quasicrystals
Art Connection – Creating Middle Eastern Quasicrystal Designs
Literature Connection – Forty Fortunes
Quasicrystals Quizlet

Lesson #6 – The Mathematics of Music

Pre-lesson Activity – Musical Instruments (& their Relationship with Mathematics)
Main Lesson Dowloads & Videos with NatureGlo
Video – Fibonacci Melody (8:34)
Going Beyond – Web Resources, Projects & Videos
Quizlet – The Mathematics of Music

Student Certificate of Completion

When your students complete the course, you can print out a nice certificate of completion to keep in their portfolio.

Check out this Video from Lesson 1 in MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World.

Check out this Video about “Why” Gloria created the MathArt courses.

Our Experience:

We received a subscription to NatureGlo’s eScience MathArt 4-Class Bundle. We chose to focus on MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World for the purpose of this review. My 17 year old son and 14 year old son were the primary participants in this course, though all of my kids participated in some of the other courses.

After enrolling in the courses at NatureGlo’s eScience, students can access their dashboard. The dashboard has tabs for each of their enrolled courses, achievements, notifications from the teacher, etc.

Here is an example of the “My Courses” tab with an overview of everything on our personal dashboard. My kids have enrolled in both the MathArt courses, and also several of the free courses offered including course samples in Marine Biology, Herptology, etc. My kids can easily click on the course they want to work on and then click on the specific lesson.

We have access to each course pictured in the “My Courses” tab for 1 year from the time we enrolled in them. For a quick overview of progress, you can see how far along the student is by observing a small pink bar under each of the courses in the picture above. Then once you click on the specific course, another pink bar appears above the list of lessons on the right side of the dashboard.

This pink bar indicates the level of completion of the courses we are working on. At the time I took this photo, you can see at a glance on the dashboard that we were over half way through with the Math Connections With The Real World course. We had also completely finished with The Introduction to Sea Turtles of the World course.

Under the “My Acheivements” tab on the dashboard, all of achievements are listed for all of the classes your students are working on. This is a nice way to see them at a glance.

Here is an example of the “Notifications” tab:

Screenshot examples of my sons doing lessons on the computer:

Here is a screen shot of the downloadable study guide. Each lesson in the course has additional study guide pages and worksheets you can save to your computer and print when needed.

Here are a few more examples of lessons in this course.

Pictures of some of the hands on projects:

Introduction to the Sea Turtles of the World

In addition to the MathArt courses, we also signed up for several of the free course offers and free downloadable unit studies. So far we have completed Introduction to the Sea Turtles of the World course.

Introduction to the Sea Turtles of the World

The 7 Sea Turtle Species Poster & How to ID
Learn to ID or Identify the 7 Sea Turtles
Literature Connection – Video (8:06) – Believe in Yourself, Story of a Sea Turtle
Art Connections: Various Sea Turtle Art Projects
Historical/Literary Connection: Traditional Japanese Folk Story: Urashima Taro
Geography Connection: The World’s 12 Healthiest Sea Turtle Populations
Creative Writing – Writing Prompts about Sea Turtles

This course was suitable for all ages of my kids from the youngest to the oldest so we hooked our computer up to the TV in the living room so that all of the children could take the class at the same time. This class covered the biology of sea turtles, geography, fiction story about a young turtle, as well as how different cultures view turtles such as the Japanese view, and also focused on different art projects relating to sea turtles.

The kids studied 7 different kinds of sea turtles and learned how to identify the different body and head types of each kind.

They also learned about life cycles of turtles from laying eggs on the shore to the eggs hatching and the baby turtles emerging from the nest to make it back to the water.

The course has several lessons and suggested videos. There is an audio video animated story about the eggs hatching and the new life of the baby turtle. After watching the suggested video, the kids dug deeper by researching their own videos of sea turtles hatching.

One of the videos they found was taken at Oak Island, NC where we have visited a couple of times and my kids have swam on that same beach that the turtles hatched from. The kids were very excited to make this connection.

One of the lessons in the course is learning to identify and draw a sea turtle.

Another art lesson in this course involves creating a unique 3D painting of a turtle and fish in the ocean.

Once you have completed this course, the student is sent an achievement award.

Here is a short video on the Introduction to Sea Turtles of the World course.

Final Thoughts about courses from NatureGlo’s eScience:

17 year old son’s opinion of the MathArt: Math Connections In The Real World:

“It has been fun to take this course. It has been amazing to see the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci numbers in everything in every day life from pine cones, to flowers, to architecture, and music. It is almost hard to grasp how much this in everyday life. It is amazing to see Father God’s hands in everything. I have learned a lot and I have been inspired to do a lot more research.”

My kids are enjoying all of these courses from NatureGlo’s eScience and having Gloria as the teacher. The younger kids are getting ready to start the Introduction To Whales & Dolphins. The older kids are about finished with the Math Connections In The Real World and will soon be starting the MathArt In Ancient Cultures. They are looking forward doing all of the classes in the MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle.

These classes are informative and there is a variety of things to do from reading, watching videos, videos of recorded classes, completing worksheets in the study guides, and additional suggested videos to expand the learning as well as a lot of suggested hands on learning activities, including fun art projects too. She covers such a wide variety of subjects from Science, Math, Art, History, Archaeology, Cultural History, etc and there is something that interests each of my kids even thought they are all different.

We really like the pre-recorded classes, because you feel as if you are in class with Gloria and the other kids, but you have the benefit of going at your own pace, and you can rewind and hear it again if you need too. With either option, pre-recorded classes or live classes, Gloria has made herself accessible if you have questions. She also asks if kids do the suggested projects, to send in pictures or links that she can share with others.

On a personal note, I wish these courses were taught from a Christian worldview. I intentionally seek out educational programs with this worldview. Thankfully my kids are strong in their faith, and they are able to add what Gloria is teaching them in NatureGlo’s eScience courses into what they already know to be true about the “Creator of the creation”, the one who created everything we are studying around us.

FREE OFFERS

You can “try before you buy” by checking out the free courses and unit studies offered through NatureGlo’s eScience.

Fibranoci Unit Study (MathArt Course)
Introduction to Sea Turtles of the World (Marine Biology Course)
Transparent Living Jewels: The Glass Frogs (Herpatology Course)
Introduction to Whales & Dolphins Unit Study (Marine Biology Course)

Social Media

Be sure to check out NatureGlo’s eScience on their social media links for all the latest news and product updates.

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Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what other families on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using courses from NatureGlo’s eScience in their homes.

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Innovators Tribe: Engineering Review

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If you are interested in helping your kids explore and develop their engineering skills, then you might want to check out the online courses from Innovators Tribe

Innovators Tribe currently offers 3 hands on courses for kids who want to learn to design, create, and build.

Thinking Like An Engineer

Thinking Like An Architect

Thinking Like A Carpenter (coming soon)

We were recently sent a 2 year subscription to Thinking Like An Engineer for the purpose of this review.

Thinking Like An Engineer

Online Course

Interactive Lessons

Activity Guides

Design Software

Online Support

Thinking Like An Engineer is taught by Wayne Kroeplin, an experienced engineer and educator. This is an “Introduction To Engineering” course designed for kids in 6 grade through 12th grades. This course qualifies for highschool science credit, (check with your specific state for more info on highschool transcript requirements).

Thinking Like An Engineer is an online self paced course with 30+ hours of interactive lessons broken into 6 units.

Unit 1 – Introduction to Engineering
Unit 2 – Introduction to 3D Computer Design and Solid Modeling
Unit 3 – Engineering Rollercoasters
Unit 4 – Engineering Bridges
Unit 5 – 3D Computer Design
Unit 6 – Nano-Engineering

Thinking Like An Engineer includes 38 interactive lessons, 10 design and build challenge activities, activity guides, online support, and 3D design software, etc. With the subscription to Thinking Like An Engineer, we were also sent a bonus course called Thinking Like An Innovator that contained 9 additional lessons plus 3 challenge activities. Listed below is the course outline for both of these courses.

Course Outline / Table of Contents

Unit 1 – Introduction to Engineering

Lesson 1 : What is engineering?

Challenge activity: Design the tallest paper tower

Lesson 2 : Different types of engineers

Challenge activity: Design a paper structure that can carry the most books

Engineering in the News!

Lesson 3 : Engineering clean water

Challenge activity: build your own water filtration system

Lesson 4 : 14 Grand engineering challenges of the world

Unit 2 – Introduction to 3D Computer Design and Solid Modeling

Lesson 1 : How to get ideas out of your head (Tools of modern design and innovation)

Lesson 2 : Introduction to your software

Lesson 3 : Creating basic objects

Lesson 4 : Moving and connecting objects

Lesson 5 : Grouping objects

Lesson 6 : Edges and faces

Lesson 7 : Adding, Intersecting and subtracting material

Lesson 8 : Material properties

Challenge activity:

Lesson 9 : 3D scanning

Lesson 10 : Rapid prototyping – 3D printing

Unit 3 – Engineering Rollercoasters

Lesson 1 : Types of roller coasters

Lesson 2 : Roller coaster design

Lesson 3 : Energy and a little math

Lesson 4 : Roller coaster construction

Engineering in the News!

Lesson 5 : How to become a roller coaster engineer

Challenge activity: Build a paper roller coaster

Unit 4 – Engineering Bridges

Lesson 1 : An engineering mystery that stunned the world!

Lesson 2 : 5 types of bridges

Lesson 3 : Parts of a suspension bridge

Lesson 4 : How to build a suspension bridge

Challenge activity: Build and test your own suspension bridges

Engineering in the News!

Lesson 5 : Bridges and physics

Lesson 6 : Famous (and scariest) bridges in the world

Lesson 7 : Structural engineering (and a little math)

Lesson 8 : Testing the wind (gathering clues)

Challenge activity: Build your own wind tunnel and test your own model bridge sections.

Engineering in the News!

Lesson 9 : What really happened that day

Lesson 10 : Out with the old, in with the new

Lesson 11 : What engineers have learned

3D challenge: Bridge design software

Unit 5 – 3D Computer Design

Lesson 1 : Quick introduction to 3D computer design

Lesson 2 : Introduction and installation of 123D Design software

Lesson 3 : Learn how to use 123D Design (Tutorials)

Lesson 4 : Let’s make a car rim!

Design Challenge: Create a piece of furniture!

Lesson 5 : 3D printing (3D what?)

Design Challenge: Make it better in 3D!

Unit 6 – Nano-Engineering

Lesson 1 : How we see small things

Lesson 2 : The discovery of a new world!

Lesson 3 : What is Nano-Engineering?

Engineering in the News!

Summary – What do I do now?
Links for additional research in the world of engineering
High school offerings and career pathways

BONUS COURSE

Thinking Like an Innovator

Lesson 1 : The 6 steps of innovation (A tragedy at sea)

Lesson 2 : What is a problem?

Lesson 3 : What is an idea?

Challenge activity: Brainstorming!

Lesson 4 : How to create more ideas

Lesson 5 : Brain Games!

Challenge activity: Mental fitness

Lesson 6 : 4 Poisons to innovators

Lesson 7 : The secret ingredient

Lesson 8 : How to make money!

Challenge activity: Solo cup

Lesson 9 : Woman Innovators

Check out this short video for more information about Thinking Like An Engineer course from Innovators Tribe:

Our Experience:

We have only had this course a few weeks so far and all I can say is wow! This course is a wonderful way for kids to explore the field of engineering in a hands on way. Their time is divided between spending some time at the computer watching the lessons or designing, and other times actually creating different challenge projects. I am thrilled this course can be listed on my kids highschool transcript and can help them meet those requirements for graduation, while at the same time learning practical knowledge and skills that will help them as adults.

Each time my son sits down to work on his course, he is able to work independently and progress at his own pace. He logs into his program, watches the video lesson, then proceeds to the challenge activity if there is one for the lesson. Some of the lessons have challenge activities, and some do not.

My son has finished the first four lessons and challenge activities in Unit 1 and is currently working in Unit 2. I have primarily focused this review on his experience with Unit 1. His favorite part so far has been the challenge activities. There is a course outline / syllabus and a basic materials list that you can download and print.

For the first unit challenges, we gathered materials from around the house, and picked up a few at the local store too: pencil, paper, scissors, clear tape, ruler, measuring tape, masking tape, a small construction level, recycled soda bottles, measuring cup, spoon, water, dirt, coffee filter, rocks, sand, etc.

The Challenge Activities kids get to do include designing and building: various towers, structures, water filters, and more. The Design Activities kids get to do include: roller coasters, bridges, Rube Goldberg machine, and learning to design with 3D CAD software.

This is a great opportunity to learn about engineering.

Here are some of the hands on challenge activity projects my kids have been building:

Challenge Activity Lesson 1 – Design the tallest paper tower as tall as you can using only 4 sheets of paper and 1 foot of masking tape. Try to reach a goal of 5 feet tall that can stand on its own without falling over.

He tried several times to get his tower to five feet, but I didn’t get a picture of all of his attempts. The tower was difficult to get it to stand straight without it falling over.

He eventually built his base wider and wider for better stability and it resulted in a shorter than 5 foot tower.

He wanted to explore this concept even more, so he tried a different method on his own with four more sheets of paper and 1 more foot of masking tape. This time he turned his paper into a grid so he could work with it better. He said he prefers working with blocks instead of circles.

He went with a wider base again to support the upper levels and prevent it from falling over. This base was tall too. We discussed that he could have used a shorter base that was still wide.

He came up with a model he liked, that wasn’t as tall as 5 feet, but stood straight without falling over.

Challenge Activity Lesson 2 – Design a paper structure that can carry (support the weight of) the most books.

Again, he chose to work with block shapes for his support structure.

He managed to load 31 books just fine, but on the 32nd book his tower of books collapsed on 1 side.

He made various structures several times to try different systems to see which design could support the most books.

Challenge Activity Lesson 3 – build your own water filtration system.

This was a fun experiment. My son used a plastic bottle, cut in half, and covered the pouring end with a coffee filter secured with a rubber band. Then he added a layer of small pebbles, and two layers of sand to create a water filtration system.

Next, he mixed dirt into water in a measuring bowl and stirred it with a spoon until most of the dirt dissolved into the water. Then he slowly poured the dirty water into his filter system.

He was very pleased when the water coming out of the homemade filter was clear and all of the dirt was gone.

This is an excellent lesson for kids and adults of all ages. There is a shortage of clean water in this world. There are people in in various places who don’t have clean water to drink, to cook with, or to bath in. Many people die from diarrhea from bacterial and parasite contamination they get from dirty drinking water. Knowing how create a water filtration system could save your life someday.

He would definitely want to make a few modifications to this homemade filter before actually drinking this water. If left as is, he could use the clear water by boiling the water to kill any pathogens before consuming it. Or if he had access to add a layer of charcoal to the bottom layer, and a layer of grass to the top layer of this filter, and possibly even use a bandanna or tee shirt as the first layer the dirty water is poured through before it enters the filter system, would help to get the water as clean as possible.

Even his little brother was impressed he could turn muddy water back into clear water.

It seems like kids are natural engineers. They love to explore, build, create, and problem solve. From birth their mind is filled with wonder and great potential. Kids naturally have an optimistic outlook and most of the time they still believe that everything is possible. Father God is the greatest engineer of all time, and we are created in his image. No wonder kids are natural engineers!

My son really likes this course and says he enjoys learning from the instructor, Wayne Kroeplin, because he explains everything very clearly and he gives lots of examples. He is interesting to listen to. When the course is finished, hopefully he will have reached the goals of what it means to think, problem solve, design, create, and build like an engineer.

Goals kids will be able to reach by the end of this course include:

Explain and apply 6 steps of problem-solving.
Know how to use techniques.
Explain ideas.
Explain “solution.”
Demonstrate the use of different brain-games that boost innovation skills.
Identify the 4 poisons to innovation and their cure.
Explain the importance of engineering and problem-solving using real-world examples.
Explain 14 grand problem-solving challenges that need solutions.
Define: tension, compression, twisting, bending, shearing, torsion, vortices, vortex shedding, aerodynamics, dead load, live load, structural-engineering, girder, truss, friction, potential and kinetic energies, g-force.
Give examples of how math subjects are used in engineering: Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, Advanced Calculus, Trigonometry, Probability & Statistics, Physics.
Demonstrate the correct use of various tools: ruler, construction level, 3D design software, etc

Thinking Like An Engineer is a terrific course. We are having a lot of fun with it. I would encourage everyone to give it a try. A great skill to have is to learn how to identify a problem or need that might be in your own home or community or across the world, and solve the need with things we can design and create. Father God has truly blessed us in his image with an intelligent mind and so much creative potential.

Social Media

Be sure to check out the website and social media for all the latest news and product updates. There are also some interesting videos on the teacher’s youtube channel and you can get an even better feel for the kind of teacher he is and the materials he teaches. Right now InnovatorsTribe is running a special sale of 35% off all their courses. The current sale runs through 11/11/17.

Website (InnovatorsTribe): https://www.innovatorstribe.com/

Youtube (Wayne Kroeplin): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRZ9sOi8qIKqFH3Z5g7VURg

Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using products from Innovator’s Tribe in their home.

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Funtastic Unit Studies Review

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Ready Set Go! It is time for school you know!

Yes it is time for school to start and we have a fun Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers created by Funtastic Unit Studies to tell you about. I am sure you will want to include this fun curriculum in your learning adventures this school year.

Science Unit Studies For Homeschoolers and Teachers

Large book, 201 pages, Soft Cover
For Kids ages 4-13
Retails $16.95

Units Studies:

There are 20 Unit Studies in this curriculum. The first ten chapters are for younger children ages 4-7, while the second ten chapters are for children ages 8-13. Each chapter is filled with fun hands on science activities that teach science concepts built around a specific theme.

20 UNIT STUDIES:

Our Senses
The Human Body
Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
Animals
Insects and Their Kin
Fun with Magnets
Stars and Planets
Health
Beginning Plants
Animal Ecology
Insects
Microscopes and Invisible Creatures
Atoms and Molecules
Matter
Chemistry Fun
Weather
Force and Motion
Simple Machines
Light and Color
Plants II

Materials needed:

At the beginning of each lesson is a list of the supplies needed to complete the learning activity. Activities are designed to use common household items, so you won’t need to buy lots of expensive scientific equipment or chemicals.

The END GOAL is to have FUN learning science and relating it to real life.

Screenshot (86)

How We Used This In Our Home.

After looking through the curriculum, we decided to begin with the unit study on learning about Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life. This chapter has 6 sections and involved about 15 suggested activities and a video plus a materials list.

Dinosaurs
Herbivores and Carnivores
Fossils
Extinction
After Extinction
Recommended Movie

The curriculum is flexible and depending on what projects you do, you can adjust the unit study for the skill level of your kids. We love unit studies and I have learned over the years, any unit study can be adjusted as needed. So I decided to make this unit study interesting for all of ages of kids in our family (15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 3) and do this together. It was perfectly suited to do this with so don’t think you are locked into a certain age range on a given subject.

We did a range of projects and included some simple activities for the younger kids and some more complicated activities for our old kids too. We completed 10 of those suggested in the book and added about 10 more of our own including creating a lapbook to keep of our fun learning adventure, learning to create our own Dinosaur Zoo in Minecraft and care for their needs in a virtual setting, creating a Dinosaur Feast, taking field trips, and watching several more dinosaur videos.

First we gathered our supplies and read over the lesson in the book. The lesson is basically 8 pages of activities ideas and supply list. Next we planned out several activities to reinforce the learning adventure. Here is some of the fun stuff we did.

Videos:

Through out this study we watched several dinosaur movies and documentaries.

Videos We watched:

The Magic Schoolbus Stegasaurus.

Located this video on Youtube.com

The Best of Discovery Channel Dinosaurs

Located a whole list of Discovery Channel’s kid friendly dinosaur videos on Youtube.com

MineCraft Dinosaurs

Located a video “How to create your own” dinosaur worlds and zoos like Jurasic Park.

A Trip Back In Time To The Beginning

This is a video we made of our visit to the Creation Museum to see dinosaurs last summer. Link is posted below under “field trips”.

Flash Cards

I found Dinosaur Flash Cards for $1 and bought a couple of sets to learn with. The set came with 50 different full color illustrated dinosaur cards. This was such a great buy and worked perfect for our learning adventure.

These had many facts about each different kind of dinosaur on the back of the card. We practiced learning the different kinds of dinosaurs and categorizing them into plant eating herbivores, or meat eating carnivores.

Then I found a free set of dinoaur fact flash cards online to use in our lapbooks. We printed them, colored them, wrote each dinosaurs name on them, and cut them out, and created a pocket to keep them in the lapbook. You can play games with them and organize them by type or size or by what they eat etc.

Math and Measurement

We took Measurements in the yard to see how big the dinosaurs were and then charted the lengths and heights on graphing worksheets. Our flash cards with lengths and heights of different dinosaurs were portable to take outside and came in handy again!

Dioramas

We created dinosaur dioramas based on what we learned.

Changing Prefixes and Suffixes and Invent and Draw Our Own Dinosaurs

The kids learned a list of 15 prefixes and 14 suffixes. For example: “Dino” means “terrible” and “saurus” means “lizard” so dinosaur means terrible lizard. They wrote them out on index cards and learned how combining the two parts gives the description of the kind of dinosaur being described. Then they made up their own new dinosaurs and drew them and colored them based on what they named them and thought they might look like.

Computer Science Skills VIRTUAL Dinosaur Zoo

The kids created a dinosaur world on MineCraft based on what they learned in the video tutorial. They built facilities, and had to feed them, water them, keep them safe, etc in the “zoo” system they built for them. They have all kinds of dinosaurs you can raise and care for with different kinds of needs. Also safety is an issue as you might need to escape from them if your character gets into a situation where you could be eaten. In the tutorial, the fella drops his gear into a pool and in the pool is a large scary croc-dino and it eats him every time he goes in to get his gear / tools so he can progress in the game. Anyway, it is really fun and creative.

Be a Paleontologist: Sandbox Dinosaur Dig & Sensory Bin Dino Dig

We did an outdoor dig and a smaller scale sensory bin indoor dig while pretending to be Paleontologists hunting for dinosaur bones. I printed out a T-Rex skeleton printout with labels of various bone structures for them to figure out some of the main bones. I buried various animal toys and pretend bones in sandbox for my kids to find.

For the indoor bin I buried a complete 3D wooden dinosaur puzzle in a mixture of beans and lentils (a mess-free way to represent dirt and rocks).

On top we made a diorama of animals and a stream and pretended a shepherd (played by Woody from Toy Story) discovered a bone near the stream and a Paleontologist (played by a Lego mini-figure) came to search for the skeleton.

Tools: Brushes of different sizes, tweezers, and magnifying glass. The Lego mini figure also has a pic ax for chipping ways at rocks and dirt too.

Using a brush to clean off the bones.

Using the magnifying glass to identify the bones.

I will post a separate story with more details and also the re-constructed dinosaur they made with the bones they discovered.

Lapbooks

We created lapbooks with lots of fun printables and activities.

I researched the coloring pages and worksheet printables from various sources online.

I will post a separate story with their completed lapbooks.

Fossils and Cooking

Making Fossil Cookies

Our guests left their tracks!

They also took a few hungry bites!

Several more fell into our pit and got stuck and left their fossilized imprints in our dough forever. Now we will always have a record that they were here.

Creating our own fossil imprints.

Making Dino Poop Protein Balls

Isn’t every kid fascinated with poop? Well, maybe not, but making edible Dino poop is a lot of fun! Dissecting this is fun too. You find “undigested” stuff in their poop (oats and nuts).

Making Dino Speckled Eggs

Edible Dinosaur Speckled Eggs are yummy and a lot of fun to make too! You can hide baby dinosaurs inside to “hatch” too.

Making food for carnivores and herbivores.

The book suggested making a stegosaurus out of a bagel, cream cheese, apple slices, and carrots. But we didn’t have bagels on hand, so we made up our own idea for dinosaur themed snacks. We set out a whole bunch of supplies and the kids designed their own dinosaur feast. They had to come up with herbivore meals and carnivore meals. They used a paper plate and a knife to create their designs. They decided to make dinosaurs out of the ingredients based on the category.

Herbivore Dinosaur Plate

We made a stegosaurus with apples, peanut butter, carrots, and olives. Then made a poop location with celery and blueberries, and a pretzel nest with grape eggs.

We also made a parsley, olive, strawberry tree and a pile of broken pretzel branches for our dinosaur to eat.

Carnivore Dinosaur Plate.

We made a T-REX with cheddar and string cheese and pepperoni, a half eaten victim of ham, string cheese pepperoni and pretzels, and a nest of pretzels and grape eggs.

Dino FEAST!

The kids had a lot of fun playing with their dinosaur food feast. They invited their dinosaur toys to the party too.

Science Field Trip #1:

We went to Brown County State Park. This was a great hands on adventure of exploration. There are two lakes, a couple of mineral springs, campgrounds, horseback riding, and miles and miles of hiking trails and streams to explore. The park covers 16,000 acres.

Our explorations pertaining to our Dinosaur Science Unit Study involved:

Looking at different ecosystems: forest, grassland, water – streams.
Looking at different geological formations and rocks.
Looking for fossils. Searching for signs of prehistoric life.

Brown County State Park

We enjoyed taking our shoes off and walking through one of the streams exploring the most of all.

It was a fun way to cool off from the heat and humidity of the day.

This was so much fun. All of the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Science Field Trip #2

Our second field trip got postponed and we are planning to go back again in a few weeks. We are going to the Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. This is considered the birth place of American vertebrate paleontology. There is a salt marsh there that many prehistoric animals died near by as they came to lick the salty water, and to drink and eat vegetation. However, because it is so marshy and somewhat like quick sand, many of these prehistoric animals got stuck and died there. Thousands of bones have been found. There is a life size display behind the museum, and then many thousands of fossils inside the museum. We have been to see this before but only saw the display outside and we followed a nature trail that meanders through the marshy landscape. But we are planning to go again and visit inside the museum. The indoor museum was closed last time we were there. They are open 10-4 pm daily and for some reason, the museum was closed the day we went.

Big Bone Lick State Park features life size mammoths, mastodons, sloths, and bison.

Science Field Trip #3

We took a virtual field trip of a real life field trip we did last summer. We looked through some pictures and videos we saved from that trip. We call it the Trip Back In Time To The Beginning and you can watch the video posted below. We visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky and made a movie about the dinosaurs around the time of creation. It was a lot of fun to go back through our pictures and watch the video of the fun day we had learning hands on about dinosaurs. They have many life size dinosaurs and skeletons and even some robotic diorama’s set up and you feel like you are right there walking with the dinosaurs. We also have pictures saved from another field trip from an actual dinosaur dig site we got to visit and museum at the Natural History Museum ad Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee, and our field trip to Dinosaur World in Kentucky. Someday I hope to make videos from the pictures of our trips to those sites too. The kids really enjoy watching their pictures put into a video like this and tying it all together. And YES my kids really like dinosaurs!!!