Innovators Tribe Engineer Course

The following is a review of Think Like An Engineer from Innovators Tribe with the TOS Homeschool Review Crew. 

Thinking Like An Engineer is an online course. One subscription allows access for our entire family. My son started the course first, but my daughter also expressed interest and may work through it in the future. 

“Mr. K” is the course guide and teacher. Some components are videos, and some are slides; all are displayed through their interactive player. We tried the course in a touch screen laptop and on an iPad and found that, for my son, the lessons were easier to navigate when using the iPad. When it progressed to using the downloaded program, he changed to his laptop computer. Hands-on activities are built into the lessons which makes them even more engaging. 

The "Learning Targets" pictured below show just how much more value is built into this course. These are charact er lessons! 

After the first lesson, music and sound effects are also incorporated into the videos. Lesson two introduces students to fourteen different types of engineers. Aerospace engineer and agricultural engineer both had my son's interest. And the program has held his interest. He keeps sharing little things he has gleaned from the lessons. 

Each activity has a suggested time to complete. Some are quick, but most take longer than a typical classroom time.  In our homeschool, we enjoy focusing on one subject for an extended time instead of the typical classroom way of doing lessons in every subject every day. This program fits well with our family's style. 

Some lessons do share links to other websites outside of the Innovator's Tribe website such as the EPA's website for directions to build a water filtration system. 

Initial lesson activities called for things easily found in most homes such as books, paper, and tape. Some challenges required more preparation. We saved the water filtration activity for later in November after our family visits the beach; my son took a screenshot of the supplies and is planning to get some smooth sand while we are there. 

There is an order to the lessons, but they can be viewed more than once. My son noticed he has to click next lesson on the corner of the video for that lesson to be marked as completed; just clicking on the next lesson in the menu isn't sufficient. 

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Challenge two 

Eleven heavy books flattened my son's paper the first time he tried the second challenge. As he tried again, while thinking like an engineer, he made a more stable base for a taller structure. 

Joseph showed me how the design software that he downloaded has similarities to both Corel and Minecraft, but also has features not available in those programs he was familiar with. As he built, for example, he could change the structure to metal and then change the type of metal. 

As he progresses through the program, future units cover engineering roller coasters and bridges. These lessons have all held my son's interest, and he is indeed learning to Think Like An Engineer. In addition to homeschool families, I think these lessons would also benefit students in classrooms such as STEM or STEAM.

Be sure to click the graphic below to read other crew reviews from Innovators Tribe. In addition to Think Like An Engineer, they also offer Think Like An Artichect, and are planning another course: Think Like A Carpenter. We also received access to a bonus course Think Like An Innovator which you can try, too. Visit their website!