NASA Webinar & Free Stuff

Last week Domenico Ruggiero gave an awesome webinar on his work at NASA. It was a wonderful learning experience for my family. The great news is that the webinar was recorded and you can watch it yourself at: One Small Step for Parents, One Giant Leap for Homeschool Kids: Insights from a NASA Engineer.

If you have a child with the least bit interest in aerospace, astronomy or engineering, you absolutely should not miss this one.

PLUS, Domenico arranged with NASA to give away all kinds of neat NASA goodies -- posters, decals, rulers, and more. To receive these giveaways drop Domenico an email. He'll email back a form so you can choose what you would like to receive. But don't wait! The deadline is August 19, 2009.

NASA, Science, Engineering, and Homeschooling

Addendum: The webinar went great and now you can watch the recording!

This is going to be one awesome webinar! And it's free!

Webinar Description:
One Small Step for Parents, One Giant Leap for Homeschool Kids: Insights from a NASA Engineer

For over 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has inspired generations of people. Domenico Ruggiero is one of those inspired individuals. He will seek to convey some of the same enthusiasm and interest in science-related topics he has carried within himself since childhood. He will also share some of his experiences of working for NASA’s space programs and what children can do to increase their chances for a similar career path. Parents will take away from this webinar a greater appreciation for a variety of NASA-related topics that they can share with their children in an effort to further their interests in science fields of study.

Presenter's Biography:
Domenico Ruggiero, age 32, and his wife are the parents of two young boys with, God-willing, more blessings to come. Domenico is employed at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida where he has worked for most of his professional career. He presently serves the NASA Constellation Program as a Systems Engineer for Booz Allen Hamilton. Prior to this role, he served the Space Shuttle Program as a Orbiter Structures Engineer for United Space Alliance. Although his childhood passion has always been aviation and space, working for NASA has contributed to his expanded science interests.

Homeschool Online Class: Economics

I have exciting news for you all as I pull together the fall courses for Homeschool Connections. In addition to Dr. Rioux who is teaching Philosophy, another Benedictine professor will be teaching a course. Dr. Harris is a wonderful, young associate professor with a love for economics as well as a love for the Catholic Church. This beautiful combination provides for an exciting and educational experience for his students.

The course is Principles of Economics and Catholic Perspectives. The regular price is $160 and there is a hefty discount for early registration. Register by July 08, 2009 and the price is only $120. Register by August 10 and the price is $135.

Course Description:
This course is intended to introduce students to fundamental concepts of economics. We will develop the use of economic reasoning to answer basic economic questions in a rational manner. It also aims to provide a thorough understanding of many economic concepts, including marginal analysis, demand and supply, and market equilibrium analysis. The class is intended to assist students in using critical thinking to solve problems. A series of applications will often accompany the course material. In addition, the class will include a review of Catholic Social Teaching and its role within the economic realm.

Course Outline:
Session 1: Introduction and marginal analysis
Session 2: Market demand analysis
Session 3: Market supply analysis
Session 4: Market equilibrium
Session 5: The market system and the role of government
Session 6: Utility and consumer behavior
Session 7: Catholic Social Teaching
Session 8: Catholic Social Teaching

Dates and Time:
This is a eight-week course. Classes will begin Tuesday, September 08, 2009 and meet every Tuesday through October 27, 2009. The time will begin 3:00 PM Eastern Time and end at 4:15 PM.

Enrollment Period:
Enrollment is currently open and will close on September 3, 2009. This will provide students time to learn about the educational software Moodle and the instructor time to provide a syllabus and welcome letter.


Materials:
Microeconomics by McConnell and Brue, 15th edition (ISBN 0072340371)
This is an older edition that is fairly cheap bought used and easy to locate online.
We'll also use one or two papal encyclicals toward the end of class, most notably Centesimus Annus by Pope John Paul II. Encyclicals can be found online for free.

Homework:
Homework will be assigned and graded. However Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping. It is up to the parent to record the grade in their child's transcript.

Professor's Biography:
Dr. Harris is an Associate Professor in the Economics Department at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. After obtaining his undergraduate degree from Benedictine College in 1997, he earned his M.S. from Iowa State University in 1999 and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2008.

His areas of research interest Catholic Social Teaching, the history of economic thought, and social economics. After spending time as a full-time volunteer working with the poor and under served population of Milwaukee, he taught personal finance classes before coming to Benedictine.

He and his wife, Jackie, live in Atchison with their three children, Helen, Clare, and Luke.

Misc. Details:
Dr. Harris will be available via email in between classes to answer questions and take comments.

Recordings of the classes are provided to students within 24 hours and available for 6 months.

Equipment Requirements:
Students are required to have high-speed internet. A headset with microphone is required. You can find them reasonably price at Amazon.

To check your connection with the online classes visit: http://www.webex.com/lp/jointest/.

Registration:
Go to: Principles of Economics and Catholic Perspectives. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Register button and then follow the instructions. We take Visa and Master Card. If you prefer to pay by check, or have any questions, please don't hesitate to email Maureen Wittmann.

In doing our polling, a lot of students asked for an economics course. In fact, here in Michigan and several other states a semester of economics is a math requirement for graduation. So, I suggest enrolling early in case the course fills up.

Click here to learn about other homeschool online classes.

Homeschool Science: Cohesion and Adhesion

Update: Kris' webinar went great! You can watch and listen to the recorded webinar at: Science at Home: Adhesion & Cohesion. Make sure to click on the video and chat icons at the top right to get the full effect.

Kris Correira's second free webinar in her At-Home Science series is scheduled and ready for you to register. And it's a pretty exciting subject too:

Cohesion, adhesion, surface tension, capillary action--this webinar will explore them all through a variety of experiments put together with whatever I can manage to find around the house.

So who is this Kris Correira you ask? Oh my, how could you not know Kris! Well, here's your opportunity to meet a lovely as well as dedicated homeschool mom:

Kris Correira is a homeschooling mom to 3 boys. She works part time as a physician assistant in an busy emergency department and a paramedic instructor at a community college; she is also a volunteer science teacher for her local homeschool co-op. She has inspired a love of science in her children through lots of hands-on learning and science books without any textbook or curriculum. See what experiments she has for fun hands-on science homeschooling.

Kris also has a great blog you really should check out: Science At Home.

Homeschool Connections is able to bring this webinar to you for free thanks to our oh-so-generous sponsors:

Emmanuel Books

Love 2 Learn

Please visit their websites and thank them for their sponsorship.

I look forward to see ya'all on Tuesday, June 30th at 8:30 PM Eastern time. And, hey, bring the kids. We had fun at Kris' last webinar watching the live static experiments so I'm looking forward to seeing what cool experiments Kris does for my family on cohesion and adhesion.