homes, water pressure & disaster

in the My House, My Home class prayerGirl visited the National Building Museum‘s House & Home exhibition to look at photographs and models of past and present American homes. back in the classroom, she learned about the process of building a house through a hands-on demonstration with real tools and materials. then she created her own house to add to the classroom neighborhood of custom homes.

this girl has a knack for picking an excellent location: her one-of-a-kind home is on waterfront property.

signGirl did the Water Works class where she experimented with the power of water pressure and learned how civil engineers have utilized it over time. she worked with her group to create a miniature architectural structure that transported water, and shoot water the farthest possible distance. she and her group also designed and built a PVC pipe fountain outdoors on the loading deck.

in Designing for Disaster, mercyGirl learned how buildings can be built to withstand the force of an earthquake. she experienced the engineering design process by investigating front-line earthquake resilient technology and then worked with her all-girl team to design, construct, and test model their building using a shake table. their design withstood the shake table test! go, girls!

bees at the botanic garden

this seedlings class at the US botanic garden was about bees, different types, their body parts, and how they communicate and work together. the girls went home with a honey stick and their own bee model with a working proboscis.

fiber

the seedlings program at the US botanic garden always highlights the abundance and wonder of botany. this time it was all about natural fiber.

eating lunch afterwards in the jungle canopy (especially on a cold day) is always a fun escape from reality.

sailing on the sultana

this trip was a unique opportunity to explore the history and environment of the Chesapeake Bay while sailing on an 18th century schooner, the Sultana.

the group explored different types of marine life in the bay,
helped the crew with the sails,
learned the names of the different parts of the ship,
discussed how sailors lived, what they ate and the tools that were used for medical care, and
learned a bit about navigation.

you can’t get much better than class on the water with instructors who enjoy their job so much that they live where they work.

scratch + wedo at kid museum

every month Kid Museum offers homeschool workshops that integrate hands-on science, technology, engineering, art and math learning in a playful, engaging way.

signGirl took the Scratch & WeDo workshop where she designed an interactive machine with a LEGO WeDo kit and used the Scratch programming language to move and manipulate it.

Either this class was intensely engaging or this girl has the makings of a talented and intensely dedicated engineer. Or both.

fuller’s geodesic dome

fuller’s fantastic geodesic dome class
at the national building museum’s homeschool day.

in this class, mercyGirl learned about the geodesic dome, why Buckminster Fuller thought the dome was such an innovative structure, and how engineering and math principles combine into this unique structure, all the while working with her classmates to construct a 6.5 x 13 foot geodesic dome in the great hall.

designing for the arctic

designing for the arctic class
at the national building museum’s
homeschool day.

signGirl became an architect for the class. Her task was to design a home for a family whose new house would be in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the US. The family wanted an environmentally sustainable home that could work with the extremely cold climate of the Arctic Circle. She and her “co-workers” investigated the climate and geography of the city, learned about green homes from the past and present, and green technologies and materials, and then she designed and constructed a model home to meet her clients’ needs.

play + work + build

while her sisters were in classes
at the national building museum’s homeschool day,
goodNewsGirl got to do her work: play!

owl pellet dissection

owl pellet dissection with homeschool science club
at watkins nature center.

signGirl meticulously went through the owl pellet
looking for bones and then tried to identify the parts.

she was excited to find identifiable jaw bones among other things.