Help for Parents
Some Web Links Related to STEM to Make Your Job as a Parent Easier!
Some parents have asked for assistance with various items ranging from tutoring to STEM to a variety of other areas such as "Where Can I Find ?" The CK Parents' group has prepared a list of some easy links to begin making your life possibly a little easier.
Drew Mosser of the CK Parents' group gave us these links. We will continue to update more links as they become available. If you have any questions concerning these links, please email your questions to Drew Mosser at: drewdonaldmosser@gmail.com
Below are a couple links for some of the most effective items initially found for high impact - low cost materials that start them off early.
FREE Online Tutoring
https://www.khanacademy.org/
The site covers a world of well tutored information from grade 1 until early college.
It is free and requires the parent and child to sign up so that progress can be monitored.
It uses a clever rewards system that lets the kids earn points as they progress and use those points to access more of the sites features.
A bare minimum home activity for every student.
STEM Coding Hardware
MicroBit:
This is a very powerful piece of hardware that is sold by the BBC to most of the English schools. The cost is around $15-$30 on Ebay and it uses a host of EASY to learn coding languages that are free to use and establish a very good beginning foundation.
They would be fantastic for any age and skill level.
http://microbit.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuza5WXiMkc
STEM Project Community
Instructables:
This site is AWESOME! It is free to use but a premium membership of (I think) $30/year allows the download of the content in PDF form and a bunch of other bonus stuff. The premium is not needed to get tons of good stuff out. The content is totally community driven and safe for the kids.
http://www.instructables.com/
STEM Related Magazine
Make magazine:
(Comments from Drew Mosser:)
This is the magazine that started the whole Make movement. It is a bimonthly publication with content that is written (in my opinion) for 5-6 grades and up. The annual $35 is for the magazine and the pdf version. The project usually are picked to cover all the age groups. The focus is on learning a LOT of electronics and mechanics by hands on application.
STEM Related Fare
Makerfaire:
This is how Make magazine defines the faire.
Maker Faire is an event created by Make magazine to "celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset".
Drew's Comments:
They are amazing events but they all cost to get in (except the National in DC, it's free). When I took Kasey and Karen to it last year it blew our minds (well not Karen's.............but she played along). We sat in on a talk by Benjamin Drew a NASA astronaut and got some autographs. We stayed just outside of DC on Shady Grove and took the metro to the college. Kasey and I will totally be going this year. The details are not listed for 2017 yet, but here is a link to the Detroit (which we may go to this year) and the DC shows.
http://yydxg3i41b1482qi9hidybgs.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/NMF-ProgramGuide_2016_v2.pdf
http://www.makerfairedetroit.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBJwiMPBBBU
STEM Related Home Delivered Projects
Tinker Crate:
This is a monthly project box that is sent to in the child name. They are completely self contained with everything including detailed instructions and a magazine. The projects vary all over the map. Fiber optic stars, Trebuchet, hydraulic claw, magnetics, biomechanical hand, and led circuits are just a few examples. You can get the crates one at a time ($20)or get a yearly subscription for a new one each month ($17).
http://www.kiwicrate.com/tinker
https://www.youtube.com/user/tinkercrate/feed