Innovator's Tribe (A REVIEW)

Here it is! My last review for the year 2017. I think I ended the year with a bang though. We had the opportunity to learn to design and build with Thinking Like an Engineer from Innovators Tribe. An online course that takes kids in grades 6-12 on a journey learning all about engineering. They learn about the different kinds of engineers, what they engineer, and there are lessons on engineering roller coasters and bridges with plenty of hands-on challenges.

For this review we received the full online course of Thinking Like an Engineer. It's fully accessible online with internet access. The child has a log-in, and they work through the lessons at their own pace. It is not live, but each lesson is made up of several videos. The videos are engaging, and they pause at the right time for the student to do what is needed before moving onto the next video. As they work through the lessons and complete each one it is checked off and the child can see their progress. On the left hand side of the screen there is always a menu with the list of lessons and topics. Next to each section is an approximate time that it will take. Some sections take as little as 2 minutes, and some as much as an hour or more.

I had originally intended for my 6th grader to use this. He started out using it, and he did great and really liked it, but he was really behind in his online science course for the charter so I ended up not pushing him in this. I realized that my 4th grader would be really interested in engineering even though it is recommended for 6th and above. I asked him if he'd like to try it and he said yes! He is a little bit of a tech savvy kid, and he is very interested in robotics and science. So, I had no worries that he'd be able to keep up.

He printed up the worksheet all on his own.

I was amazed at how well he did. I really didn't have to do much except show him how to log in. He was able to move through the lessons easily. He even printed up the worksheet on his own. I think this course does really well in moving the student through each lesson and challenge. Both boys did this very well.

There are journal pages to print out with each lesson. I was thrilled to see him taking notes. This is something he really doesn't do very well, so this was great practice for him.

He flew through the first lesson and challenge. The first challenge is building a tower as tall as possible with just 4 sheets of paper and I think a foot of tape, or maybe it's two, I'm not sure. Both boys did this challenge, but for some reason I can't find the picture of my 6th grader's end result. His was pretty tall. This is the 4th grader's result. He made his 13" tall, and pretty sturdy. It was able to stand for the required 10 seconds. It was so interesting to see their difference in thinking.

My 4th grader's tower. He opted for the shorter, but definitely sturdier tower.

 A little closer glimpse of the notebook pages...

He did his engineer research page all on his own. I thought I'd have to help him with this.

Since their Dad is a type of engineer they have a little bit of knowledge of this type of field, but this is a great course for any one who has a kid that is interested in engineering. This is becoming a pretty big and necessary field of work, and most kids would benefit from Thinking Like an Engineer. There is another course called Thinking Like an Architect that some of the crew members tried out. You can see those and other Thinking Like and Engineer reviews by clicking on the banner below.