Engineering & Computer Programming curriculum for 4th graders?

[Halcyon]

After reading yet another article in the NY Times about the dearth of engineers and high level computer programmers in Silicon Valley, (here's another article) and after listening to my almost-9 year re-iterate his interest in engineering, I have decided to ramp up my efforts to find him a curriculum or some sort of book we can work through on these subjects. We already have snap circuits, do tons of legos, and work on "technical" drawings that attempt to solve problems we find in consumer products (such as the squirting juice box dilemma). However, I'd like to find something more formal and structured.

 

I know of the Engineering is Elementary program used in some schools, but it's way too pricey to use in a typical homeschool; does anyone know of a similar, less-expensive program? We also have Scratch on our computer, which I am determined to incorporate into our HS more next year (just discovered there's a newly available guide book for Scratch-I think I'll have to set up lesson plans based on the book and online videos)

 

Sorta thinking out loud here, but if anyone wants to brainstorm with me, please do.:001_smile:

 

ETA:

Some other discoveries: PBS Kids Design Squad has online episodes and projcts for free..looks like they've got some very cool design resources, downloadable as pdf files.

Another cool website with lesson plans and ideas for elementary children.

For older kids ages 11-15, Intel has a site with lesson plans and ideas.

Time Engineers video game, where kids go back in time to solve engineering problems Available for home for $20

Edited March 26, 2011 by Halcyon

[laurad1125]

:bigear:

[Karen in CO]

Some things we use:

Lego Mindstorm.

K'nex physics units.

Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction - it is a terrific book about building weapons from household objects. My kids love it. It gets them to build and think.

Invent Your Own Computer Games in Python. My dd loves this and enjoys being able to program simple games. I was a computer programmer back in the day, so maybe its easier for me to teach than it would be for a less-technical mom, but I've found that it's pretty straight forward.

 

My dd also does stop-motion animation. I think the process is great for this age because it forces them to break up an action into small steps in addition to having a fun application of computer skills.

 

I'm still on my first cuppa coffee so I might think of something else later.

[RootAnn]

IMO, taking apart & putting things back together is hugely educational for future engineers. The most solidly grounded & BEST (mechanical/electrical) engineers I know were farm kids who worked on machinery or kids whose parents let them have broken things with which to tinker.

 

Throwing away the lawn mower? Pull the engine off & let the kid take it apart & put it back together. If you don't have "broken" things, take your kid to the junk yard and let him/her bring home a few items.

 

For computer-types, let the kid have your old (probably slow) computer (possibly not connected to the internet although who knows how long that'll last). They can save up money to add memory, replace a power supply, load on a Linux operating system, turn it into their own server, etc.

 

.... And try to find them a small area they can call their own workshop. Someplace they can do their tinkering/building/chemical reactions without you constantly freaking out about the mess.

 

I'm a Mechanical Engineer (P.E.) & wife of an electrical/nuclear engineer. I have also toted my kids along to professional development seminars (only the hour-long ones) on interesting topics & brought them to the local college's E-Week activity-day.

Edited March 27, 2011 by RootAnn
Adding my 'street cred'

[Satori]

This was my career. Loved it.

 

If you go to HSBC, you can get the Microsoft programming suite for free. Dreamspark. That is the real stuff he'd use in the real world.

 

I think you can just download it for free from the source:

https://www.dreamspark.com/

 

I taught myself everything, even though I went to college for Management Information Systems. What I really needed to know, I taught myself using the Internet and books.

 

Also give him a few hundred bucks and have him build his own computer!

[nmoira]

Art of Construction

Engineering the City

Also Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists

This last one is not as engineering oriented (though the students do build a seismograph), but deals with things of practical concern to structural engineers.

 

paper engineering (numerous resources exist, there's even a For Dummies book :rolleyes:)

[Halcyon]

These are great suggestions, keep em coming. I haven't had a moment to check them all out, but my older is asking for me to shoot hoops with him, so off I go.

 

Will look more closely at everything later. Thank you!

[JohannaM]

This is probably beyond a 4th grader, but might be enjoyable once he learns some programming. It would be a natural extension of working with the snap circuits. TI (Texas Instruments) has a low-power processor family called the MSP430. They have lots of neat development kits for it such as one with a little solar panel and one with the processor in a watch. They have tons of C sample code and projects online to get you started. Some of the processors in the family have equipment to work with audio (microphones and speakers) or talk to it over USB. Most of the kits have headers where you can solder on your own sensors/LEDs etc..

 

http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcugettingstarted.tsp?sectionId=97&tabId=2674&familyId=342&toolTypeId=1

 

http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/landing/mcu/index.htm?DCMP=MSP430&HQS=Tools+OT+ez430

 

However, that being said, an engineer is born more from a curious mind wanting to figure out how things work. Letting him explore, take things apart, solve problems etc.. will more than prepare him if he wants to be an engineer!

 

Johanna

[jennynd]

well, as myself and hubby are both engineers. (mechanical for me and hubby has mechanical and aerospace) I think engineering are more evolved through hobbies and fun activities rather than lessons.

My Dad used to fix everything . And I look over his shoulder and learn that way. Hubby love stuff like erector set as kids. and we still have boxes of his old sets. We do lego with kids. But we more encourage them tear it apart and make their own than following the book instruction. that is just no fun to follow books. I will totally do lego mindstorm.

I guess I am trying to say is make the engineering in your daily life rather than have a curriculum.

[boscopup]

well, as myself and hubby are both engineers. (mechanical for me and hubby has mechanical and aerospace) I think engineering are more evolved through hobbies and fun activities rather than lessons.

My Dad used to fix everything . And I look over his shoulder and learn that way. Hubby love stuff like erector set as kids. and we still have boxes of his old sets. We do lego with kids. But we more encourage them tear it apart and make their own than following the book instruction. that is just no fun to follow books. I will totally do lego mindstorm.

I guess I am trying to say is make the engineering in your daily life rather than have a curriculum.

 

Yes, give him old electronics from the thrift store to take apart and put back together. That's the type of stuff my dad did as a kid that made him able to pretty much engineer anything.

[Snickerdoodle]

:bigear:

[freerange]

Yes, give him old electronics from the thrift store to take apart and put back together. That's the type of stuff my dad did as a kid that made him able to pretty much engineer anything.

This is the way Richard Feynman started out!

 

This year we've been using Lego NXT, Game Maker's Apprentice and Mini Weapons. My shortlist for future use includes Scratch for Teens, Visual Basic for Teens & Python (not sure which book yet), Make Electronics (I spent ages reading through this at a Maker Faire recently, and it seems far superior to the other electronics books I've seen.) Their book on Arduino looked pretty good too. Oh, go to a Maker Faire if you have one near you! My DDs thought it was fantastic, hence why I was able to spend so long looking through the books.

 

:bigear: I'll be following this thread with interest to pick up more ideas.

[angela in ohio]

I was going to suggest the Make: Electronics book, too.

 

Also, my dc have been using the book Computer Programming for Teens, and my 8 yo is getting most of it.

 

It's the LEGO NXT that's the big hit here, though ds mostly uses it and the girls are moving into kits from MAKE Magazine.

[rafiki]

.

[ocelotmom]

I have a curmudgeonly rant about how computers these days are too easy to use and, at the same time, too complex and/or restrictive to easily replicate or modify, and don't encourage curiosity about the inner workings in the same way they did When I Was A Kid, but I'll skip it.

 

For computer-types, let the kid have your old (probably slow) computer (possibly not connected to the internet although who knows how long that'll last). They can save up money to add memory, replace a power supply, load on a Linux operating system, turn it into their own server, etc.

 

I agree that installing Linux is a good start (though I'm biased - we've been an all-Unix house for over a decade) - these days it's easy enough that either my 7 year old or my mother could manage an install on standard hardware and use it for everyday things, but it still allows easy access to the more complex, under-the-hood stuff.

 

Making them install one of the less easy (but more customizable) linux distributions (Gentoo, for example) would make it a better learning experience :)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_educational_programming_languages has a whole list of things. As far as the modern ones go, most seem to be drag-and-drop visual type things which, I suppose, still get the basic concepts across (Big overwhelming list - the Smalltalk based ones and Alice are the ones I've seen the most about, personally).

 

http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/ looks interesting, with a lot of real-world applicability (and it's free).

 

I ran an online, text-based game back before I had kids using MOO software. It's uses a relatively simple, easy to learn programming language, with concepts that are very applicable to more complex languages, and the social, cooperative atmosphere provides motivation to learn to do cool things with it. Back then, there were a lot of these running specifically designed for educational purposes. I can't find any of those still running now. Which isn't to say none exist, just that all the directories I can find are hopelessly out of date. But I have a feeling most of them fell victim to the web. Anyways, LambdaMOO is the oldest, and is still running, but I have no idea where it falls on the scale of child-friendliness these days, so preview first and use with supervision unless you're talking about a mature teenager. http://www.lambdamoo.info/ is the website.

 

(The one I ran is still online, and has historically been a relatively friendly environment for younger people and learning, but I haven't been involved in the administration for several years, and it's based around a specific theme rather than general learning, so I'm not vouching for it, simply pointing out that it exists: http://www.ansiblemoo.org/)

 

Poking around a bit, I find http://www.vroma.org:7878/, which looks like an intriguing, more current option. As a bonus, it's set in Rome and will speak Latin if desired. I think it might be fun to have an online co-op class based here.

[easygoer]

As a cross-curriculum idea, I love all the David MacAulay books:

 

http://www.amazon.com/David-Macaulay/e/B000AP72G0/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1301182301&sr=8-2

 

And I was going to suggest model-building...I'm a Naval Architect so I was going to suggest ship models :tongue_smilie:Many of the Anatomy of the Ship books are amazing. In particular I recommend the Endeavor and the Dreadnought.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=anatomy+of+the+ship&x=0&y=0

 

I built mid-ship section models of each, which shows the structure.

 

Also check this technical drawing and design series:

 

http://www.drawyourworld.com/Catalog/HTML/sketch1.html

[Quad Shot Academy]

My hubby and 5th grader have been learning Ruby with a book from the library and this free game download, called Ruby Warrior. They have really been enjoying it!

[stripe]

I have a curmudgeonly rant about how computers these days are too easy to use and, at the same time, too complex and/or restrictive to easily replicate or modify, and don't encourage curiosity about the inner workings in the same way they did When I Was A Kid, but I'll skip it.

 

Ha ha. I remember staying after school to program in LOGO. Ha ha.

 

Anyway, in that vein, I'd like to throw out these random book suggestions... (these are not suggestions for the building-crazed 10 year olds, but for adults, as they are more reflective of the process of making things)

 

Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World by Mark Frauenfelder

 

and

 

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford

[JennyD]

Take a look at Hello World: Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners. My son has been working through it with the help of his father and is picking up Python remarkably quickly. It's coauthored by a father-son team and I think it would be very suitable throughout elementary school.

Edited March 27, 2011 by JennyD

[JennyD]

I have a curmudgeonly rant about how computers these days are too easy to use and, at the same time, too complex and/or restrictive to easily replicate or modify, and don't encourage curiosity about the inner workings in the same way they did When I Was A Kid, but I'll skip it.

.

 

My husband goes off on that rant maybe once a month or so. :D

[Beth in SW WA]

These are great suggestions, keep em coming. I haven't had a moment to check them all out, but my older is asking for me to shoot hoops with him, so off I go.

 

Will look more closely at everything later. Thank you!

 

I'm devouring these tech threads. What did you decide?? :)

[Halcyon]

You can see what we're going to do (or what we plan to do) if you take a peek at my sig. Because we have so much on our plate for 4th, I am going to think of Engineering as our fun extra. I really like the Mini Weapons book and DS will surely do this in his own time for fun. I like the videos and projects at Design Squad too. We'll incorporate other suggestions from this thread as needed :D We'll primarily focus on hands-on stuff this year and do more computer programming in 5th.

[angela in ohio]

Since I posted last, we have added a few things here, too.

 

Dd is deep in Greenfoot, which teaches early Java programming. We have Introduction to Programming with Greenfoot, a helpful book.

 

The kids are pooling their money to order a Finchbot. They're hoping it will be like the NXT. :001_smile:

 

I picked up an old-school (pre-CAD) drafting textbook at a library sale for $1.00, and dd bought a set of drafting tools and is working through it. I am assuming she will appreciate the computer drafting more when she has had to do it old-school. :001_smile: I am shopping around for knock-off CAD programs, too.

 

I also noticed that many schools use GameMaker as an intro to programming skills for upper elementary, so we downloaded that a few weeks ago. Coincidentally, I bought a pre-launch subscription to GameBuilders Academy for half price at convention, and it just came by email yesterday. It's a curriculum/tutorial that uses GameMaker. I can't tell you yet if it's any good, but here's hoping.

Edited June 18, 2011 by angela in ohio