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.

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, Robotics, 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. 

• 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! . In addition to the Soldering Basics kit, this class requires an electronics soldering iron and additional tools. Click here to see Brian's tool recommendations. 

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 Week (Download Packet)
• 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) BONUS BINOCULAR ASTRONOMY LAB
• 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

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! Students will learn about plant and animal cells as they explore magnification, optics, and microscope anatomy.

Materials needed during class: please bring your science journal, scissors, glue stick and the handouts below.

• 4/02: Week 27 Biology Part 1: Kingdoms of Life  (Download handout)
• 4/09: Week 28 Biology Part 2: Intro to Cells (Download handout)
• 4/16: Week 29 Biology Part 3: Plant & Animal Cells  (Download handout)
• 4/23: Week 30 Biology Part 4: Living Organisms (Download handout)
• 4/30: Week 31 Biology Part 5: Cell Energy (Download handout)

Even if you don’t own a microscope you can still join our class!  Inexpensive microscope options include a pocket microscope, a digital microscope that can connect to a phone, and a live cell laser microscope (we'll build one of these in class).

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!

We switched Weeks 32 and Week 33 so our Aviation Week is now on May 14th so it lines up with our May 15th Field Trip in a real airplane!

• 5/07: Week 33 Aeronautical Engineering: Aircraft Design (Download Worksheet #33)
• 5/14: Week 32 Aviation: Avionics & Instruments (Download Worksheet #32)
• 5/21: Week 34 Astronautical Engineering: Rocketry, Spacecraft Propulsion & Design (Download Worksheet #34)
• 5/28: Week 35: Finale! (No handout needed)