anmom Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 DS is a semi-advanced 3rd grader. He is very interested in engineering, aeronautical in particular. I would love to do some interest led learning with him but am at a little of a loss at where to begin. Anyone BTDT? Or have ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anmom Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Try these websites http://m.instructables.com/id/Project-Based-Engineering-for-Kids/ Diy.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CafeDiem Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 My son really enjoyed The Wright Brothers for Kids book and all the activities included in it. We used that book as a starting point for a summer unit on the properties of flight. I can't remember the rest of the books we used... they were mostly library books. We built model planes, kites, paper planes, and a rocket. It was a lot of fun and he really got a sense of the forces of flight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Civil Air Patrol suggests AEX 1 books for grades 1-5. They'd cover aerospace topics, though maybe not specifically engineering. AEX for Teachers. I found AEX II used on Amazon for an older aerospace fan, or you can download them here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anmom Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 I actually have all of the CAP books, they sent them to us for free when we signed up as members. I thought they were more for older students, but we have that one for sure. I will pull those out and see what they have! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Has he seen Jane's All the World's Aircraft? Maybe have him start identifying aircraft in the "neighborhood". If there is a small airport nearby you could probably arrange a sampler flight. Really, the actual background is good basic science, particularly physics. Actual jobs in that field are almost always specialists within the larger field (one exception might be fleet management). Can you couple his aero interest with design, testing, materials, electronics, mechanics, all of the above? Try poking around the NASA and Smithsonian websites, too. The Air and Space museum has a nice kids room that covers the basic science behind flight. If you are in the Midwest, Dayton, Ohio has an impressive aircraft museum. So does Tucson, at the Pima Air Museum. Kind of random thoughts on my part, maybe if you can share what his interests are more specifically I could give done more targeted ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anmom Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Has he seen Jane's All the World's Aircraft? Maybe have him start identifying aircraft in the "neighborhood". If there is a small airport nearby you could probably arrange a sampler flight. Really, the actual background is good basic science, particularly physics. Actual jobs in that field are almost always specialists within the larger field (one exception might be fleet management). Can you couple his aero interest with design, testing, materials, electronics, mechanics, all of the above? Try poking around the NASA and Smithsonian websites, too. The Air and Space museum has a nice kids room that covers the basic science behind flight. If you are in the Midwest, Dayton, Ohio has an impressive aircraft museum. So does Tucson, at the Pima Air Museum. Kind of random thoughts on my part, maybe if you can share what his interests are more specifically I could give done more targeted ideas. LOL, well I was starting with aeronautical engineering because that was the closest thing I could think of to what he is "wanting" to do. He has drawn up very elaborate plans to make a real life Quiditch game. Complete with flying umbrellas, quaffels, and everything in between. I thought at first it was a video game he was wanting to make and I was all over that, until I realized he meant real life. LOL The kid has big dreams! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 We, uh, have a quidditch field. In our yard. What's wrong with that? :P (And homemade brooms. No real quaffle though.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anmom Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 We, uh, have a quidditch field. In our yard. What's wrong with that? :p (And homemade brooms. No real quaffle though.) Details please! Maybe we can start with something a little less..umm..elaborate! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeAndTheBoys Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Does he do paper airplanes? We have several books, and my boys spend HOURS on those. All kinds of modifications you can make-- These books are very cool for building little engineering things: http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Weapons-Mass-Destruction-Implements/dp/1556529538/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428342645&sr=1-1&keywords=mini+weapons+of+mass+destruction I'll have to think on this. We live in an engineering town so my boys are always diddling around in projects, but it's just been hobby-ish. Lots of books and stuff to build and destroy. Tearing apart old appliances might be fun, broken DVD players and such. This has been a popular book with one son too: http://www.amazon.com/New-Way-Things-Work/dp/0395938473/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428342724&sr=1-1&keywords=the+way+things+work b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Boston museum has engineering/tech units at engineering is elementary.org. (Or maybe it's a .con?) NASA website has educational stuff. There's a thread in accelerated learners re: astronauts right now too :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 We wandered around a big hardware store trying parts out on each other until we had supplies for 6 big golden hoops. The poles were about $2 a piece from the electrical department. Then we found T shaped joints and another part for the top of the pole were in plumbing, and the hoops were made with a roll of solid tube we had to cut to size. (Electrical I think) Glue and gold spray paint finished the job. They popped the hoops off and I ended up taking gold ductape to them. Brooms were sticks we cut, craft store straw, and twine. Run a search and you'll find oodles of blog tutorials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I'll second paper airplanes. Learn how making flaps and such make planes twist, flip, and more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommytoFour Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 A couple of the Engineering Adventures units might be interesting http://www.eie.org/engineering-adventures/curriculum-units Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 That was my husband as a kid. He raided the library for every book on the topic he could find. Then he built a bunch of models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 I've been thinking about kids and engineering lately. It seems like kids don't often get to seriously build things any more, but I think developing a sense of hpw things really work, how materials behave and such, often comes from actually using them. I would look into things like carpendry, building racing cars, and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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