Denise in PA Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 I recently had a "eureka" moment when I happened upon JETS: Explore...Assesss...Experience Engineering! From reading their web site, www.JETS.org, I have discovered a wonderful non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting engineering and technoligal careers for America's high school students. This unique organization offeres students competitions (TEAMS), on-line assessment tools, design challenge competitions, and career exploration materials. My teenage son is most interested in organizing a team for next winter's TEAMS competition. TEAM+S stands for Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science. A TEAMS consists of 4-8 high school students who meet several times with a coach (a parent, math or science teacher, retired or working engineer, etc) and then learn to work and collaborate as a team for a two-part competition. The JETS web site explains the TEAMS much more effectively than I could in this post. I recently spoke with the director of development in the JETS organization and discovered that only one home school team competed this past year - only one in the nation. The director admitted that this educational organization needs to promote the exciting possibilites to the home school communities. Have any of you ever heard of JETS? Have any of your children competed with JETS? For those interested in learning more about JETS please check out their web site. This group is very earnest in reaching the home schoolers and eager to share curriculum and educational supplements. I am looking forward to any feedback! Thanks, Denise in PA :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April in CA Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 Thaks for the link - I will explore this with my budding engineer! April Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staci in MO Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 I went to the TEAMS competition, too. I don't remember practicing ahead of time, but that was, erm, twenty years ago, so it's a bit foggy. The TEAMS competition was fun and very challenging. I remember competing against another high school which was our basketball rival - and being so irritated that their basketball star was as good at math as he was at basketball. LOL! I was just telling my dh that we ought to try to encourage engineering for our dc. There is going to be a dearth of engineers in a few years as all those men and women who were inspired by the space race retire. I read an article where an engineer mused that there needs to be a CSI for engineers to inspire the next generation. :lol: My dc are too young, but I'll file this away. A few of my fellow homeschooling moms are former/current math and science nerds, so we might want to put a team together in the future. Thanks for the reminder, and also the info that it's something homeschoolers can participate in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Do you join a local group? How does this work? What are the age limits? (I only glanced through the site, but was wondering from those that might be familiar with it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise in PA Posted June 21, 2008 Author Share Posted June 21, 2008 Hi! From my understanding anyone high school student can form a JET TEAM+S in the U.S. Teams are for 9-12th grades only, consisting of 4-8 teens. The website, www.jets.org, states that approximately 14,000 students participate each year (competitions are held locally Feb-March). About 90% of students return the following year's competition (except seniors, of course.) A college or high school probably hosts a competition near you - the web site offers such information. If your team competes well then it can move on to a higher level. What intrigues me is that public high school teams compete with other public schools and a home school team would compete against other home school teams - all to keep the playing field level. Of course, with only one home school team competing last year the door is W-I-D-E open! Denise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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