Academic Year 2023-24

Welcome to our Supercharged Science Family! I am so excited you’re joining us this year!  This  online program is very flexible. Your child can work through the program at their own pace, fast or slow, and on their own schedule. You can watch the lessons in any order, as many times as you’d like.

You don’t have to worry about trying to come up with a weekly science curriculum, answering hard science questions, and getting your kids to do their lessons… I’m going to do all the heavy lifting for you and do all of this and more! All YOU need to do is provide the kids.

As an added bonus, I am offering additional LIVE, interactive classes each week to introduce one science concept to your kids. Near the end of each lesson, I’ll answer questions and point to the experiments that go with the science topic we just covered.

Step 1: Download your Science Packet

I've put together a schedule of the classes I will be teaching live every week, and you are welcome to join me! There will be engineering challenges, time for questions and interaction, and so much more during our time together. This is also called an "Academic Planner", as it contains the information you need to plan out your academic year.

Step 2. Join a Live Class

All of the science classes are included in your enrollment, and you can do as many as you want. If you're new, we recommend doing a couple of live classes with Aurora at on Tuesdays, so you can ask questions directly and get help.

On pages 9 - 12 in the Academic Packet for 2023-24, you'll find details of all the live bonus classes we are offering. Decide which the classes you want and pencil them in your own personal calendar. If you miss a class, you'll find the recordings posted below in the appropriate section. Simply scroll down to the appropriate month and click on the date to watch the recording.  Subscribe to the calendar feed here. All times in calendar are PACIFIC.

Academic Year 2023-24 LIVE Classes with Aurora:

You'll find all the science content for the current academic year published below. All live class video recordings, handouts, worksheets, bonus labs, material lists, experiment lists, and bonus live sessions are found below. (For Brian's Electronics content, please go to Unit 25 (Electronics) and Unit 28 (Coding); for Oliver's Microscopy is Unit 26, and Al's Aviation is Unit 27.)

September 2023 - Physics of Motion & Sound

This month, we are focusing on the fundamentals of physics. You’ll be taking a crash-course in physics as you swing, zoom, bang, drop, roll and tangle with Newton’s Laws of Motion and understand the basics principles of Energy. Kids will be experimenting with hovercraft, freefall motion, parachutes, catapults, building three kinds of speakers, and more!

• 09/12: Week 1 Mechanics (Forces, Gravity & Friction) Unit 1 (Download Worksheet #1)
• 09/19: Week 2 Motion (Velocity, Acceleration & Freefall) Unit 2  (Download Worksheet #2)
• 09/26: Week 3 Energy (Potential, Kinetic & Roller Coasters) Unit 5  (Download Worksheet #3)
• 10/03: Week 4 Work & Power (Simple Machines, Rube Goldberg Machines) Unit 4 (Download Worksheet #4)
• 10/10: Week 5 Sound (Vibration, Resonance, Waves & Speakers) Unit 6 (Download Worksheet #5)

October 2023 - Physics of Light

Discover the amazing properties of light by learning about intensity, color, brightness, polarization, and more as you work your way through the electromagnetic spectrum! We're going to build laser light shows, reflect holograms, shatter sunlight, and bend light into a pretzel using physics.

• 10/17: Week 6 Properties of Light (Frequency, Wavelength, Spectrum) Unit 9 (Download Worksheet #6)
• 10/24: Week 7 Lasers (Transmission, Absorption, Refraction, Diffraction) Unit 9 (Download Worksheet #7)
• 10/31: Week 8 Optics (Lenses, Optics, and Holograms) Unit 9 (Download Worksheet #8)

November 2023 - Electricity, Electronics, Magnetism

Spark together electric motors, build homemade burglar alarms, wire up latching circuits and create your own whizzing, hopping, dancing, screeching, swimming, crawling, wheeling, robots! Topics: electricity, magnetism, electrical charges, chassis construction, sensors.

• 11/07: Week 9 Electricity & Circuits (Series & Parallel, Burglar Alarms) Unit 10 (Download Worksheet #9)
• 11/14: Week 10 Robotics (Electrical Components, Sensors) Unit 10 (Download Worksheet #10)
• 11/21: Week 11 Magnetism & Electromagnetism (Relays & Linear Accelerators) Unit 11 (Download Worksheet #11)

December 2023 - Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity

Ooze, bubble, and slurp your way through the periodic table as you grow dinosaur toothpaste, coagulate slime, crystallize molecules, shake up ice cream, blast cannons and make a liquid freeze by heating it up. Discover 5 states of matter, supercooling, chemical kinetics, phase shifts, molecules, elements, atoms, chemical reactions.

• 11/28: Week 12 Matter, Atoms & Molecules Unit 3, 8 (Download Worksheet #12)
• 12/05: Week 13 Reactions & Reactivity Unit 3, 8 (Download Worksheet #13)
• 12/12: Week 14 Electrochemistry Unit 8 (Download Worksheet #14)

January 2024 - Mechanical Engineering

We’re going to take the areas of physics and chemistry and apply it to one of the oldest branches in engineering: Mechanical Engineering. This area of science covers a wide scope, including engines and power systems, heat and cooling systems, renewable and alternative energy sources and so much more. We’re also going to do one full week of electrical engineering fundamentals so you can what real engineers need to know in order to do their work!

• 1/09: Week 15 Work, Energy, Power and Hydraulics/Pneumatics Units 4 & 5 (Download Worksheet #15)
• 1/16: Week 16 Renewable Energy Unit 12  (Solar, Wind, Geo, Bio, Tidal, Ocean) (Download Worksheet #16)
• 1/23: Week 17 Thermodynamics Unit 13 (Temperature, Heat Transfer) (Download Worksheet #17)
• 1/30: Week 18 Electrical Engineering Unit 25 (Soldering Basics with Brian uses a special soldering kit, details coming soon!)

February 2024 - Civil & General Engineering

We’re going to discover what it’s really like to be an engineer by building bridges, buildings, and skyscrapers and also by working our way through several engineering challenges which includes design, construction, and troubleshooting. 

• 2/06: Week 19 Tension, Compression, Levitating Structures (Download Worksheet #19)
• 2/13: Week 20 Materials, Structures, Buildings (Download Worksheet #20)
• 2/20: Week 21 Special Class! National Engineering/Science Week (Engineering Challenge Packet coming soon.)
• 2/27: Week 22 Science Fair Projects! (Guidebook coming soon)

March 2024 - Astronomy & Astrophysics

Take an intergalactic star tour of the universe as you discover new moons, comets and asteroids; explore the outer solar system, and learn about the unusual uniqueness of planets! You'll get to learn how make a comet using chemistry, explode plasma in your kitchen and create solar eclipses in a the closet. Also included are live star gazing sessions to help you learn how to navigate the night skies easily!

• 3/05: Week 23 Planets, Moons and Binoculars (Download Worksheet #23)
• 3/12: Week 24 Asteroids, Comets, Meteorites (Download Worksheet #24) BONUS METEORITE LAB 
• 3/19: Week 25 Solar Astronomy, Stellar Astrophysics (Download Worksheet #25) BONUS SOLAR OBSERVING LAB 
• 3/26: Week 26 Deep Space Objects (Download Handout #26)

April 2024 - Life Science & Biology

We’re going to cover different areas of biology in this course, including zoology, biochemistry, molecular biology, ecology, botany and more. Discover and learn through classes taught by a real biologist as well as learn the big concepts in biology and how they tie into both physics and chemistry. We’ll also uncover a whole new world of amazing organisms as we learn how to use a microscope! Learn about magnification, optics, and compound microscope anatomy as you learn to prepare wet and dry mount specimens, perform staining techniques, and fire heat fixes. Even if you don’t own a microscope, you can still join our class, we’ll teach you how you can make a pocket microscope, live cell laser microscope and more!

• 4/02: Week 27 Biology Part 1 (Download Worksheet #27) coming soon!
• 4/09: Week 28 Biology Part 2 (Download Worksheet #28) coming soon!
• 4/16: Week 29 Biology Part 3 (Download Worksheet #29) coming soon!
• 4/23: Week 30 Biology Part 4 (Download Worksheet #30) coming soon!
• 4/30: Week 31 Biology Part 5 (Download Worksheet #31) coming soon!
• TBA: Week 32 Biology Part 6 (Download Worksheet #32) coming soon!

May 2024 - Aeronautical & Aerospace Engineering

Soar, zoom, fly, twirl and gyrate as you investigate the wonderful world of flight, creating flying contraptions, blasting rockets, and learning about air pressure, flight dynamics, wing design, air breathing engines, rocket thrusters, and take a real lesson in an airplane with a flight instructor!

• 5/07: Week 33 Aviation: Avionics, Instruments and Flight Lesson in a Real Airplane (Download Worksheet #33)
• 5/14: Week 34 Aeronautical Engineering: Aircraft Design (Download Worksheet #34)
• 5/21: Week 35 Astronautical Engineering: Rocketry, Spacecraft Propulsion & Design (Download Worksheet #35)
• 5/28: Finale!

Bonus LIVE Classes with Experts All Year Long!

This year, we have several dedicated instructors who are sharing their specialized knowledge and experienced through a special set of  live classes. Click on the images below to view their content and enjoy the learning adventure! All classes are open to all ages and included with your enrollment.