Aviation Careers & Hearing Loss, Ocean Exploration, and a Breakthrough

The kids have been busy over the course of the last two weeks. We have continued with our flight and sea life studies.

Last week, Pilot discovered three types of jobs he thought were interesting: ferry pilot, test pilot, and patrol pilot. He researched the jobs and the requirements of each one and then we compared them to the executive type jobs. I didn't save the link to the video we watched of an interview with a top executive but a quick search of online videos will give you lots of results. Pilot noticed that the executive being interviewed had global knowledge of the aviation industry while an assistant airport manager's knowledge revolved around the airport. Other jobs he found of interest were air traffic controller, engineer, community planner, and chemical engineer.

I did some researching of my own and learned all kinds of things, good things, about deaf pilots. Pilot is deaf in one ear. Here are some of the links:

Hearing Standards and Evaluation
Training FAQs
Q&A Deaf Pilots Association
Deaf Pilots Association

This week, Pilot began his Flight unit study by Amanda Bennett. Pilot has a few books to read regarding his studies. "The Rocket Man and Other Extraordinary Characters in the History of Flight", "The Story of Flight: The Wright Brothers and Other Pioneers of Flight", and the "Illustrated Book of Fighter Aircraft". For pleasure, he chose "Sterling Squadron" by Eric Nylund which he finished in two days. I suggested he keep a notebook for documenting what books he reads and what movies he sees so he can take note of what he liked or disliked about them.

Storm Chaser began his Twisting Tornadoes unit study by Amanda Bennett and Little One started her Whales unit study. We also watched Ocean Exploration, a Bill Nye the Science Guy video. The kids really enjoyed it. We learned why humans cannot simply use a long tube (imagine a long straw) to breathe in deep water...because there is too much pressure on a person's chest for the air to come through the tube, since there's less pressure on the air going into the tube. We also learned how oceanographers used to map the ocean floor (with weights) before they had echo sounding equipment, how water pressure can crush things and people, and JASON. JASON is a remotely operated vehicle.

I was so excited that Storm Chaser wanted to read to me!!! This is a spectacular event! He NEVER reads for fun. He read "How to Hide an Octopus and Other Sea Creatures" by Ruth Heller. I thought it was interesting he didn't notice how it rhymed until I told him after he was done with the book. Maybe we need to get familiarized with poetry?

And, as if  reading for fun weren't enough, Storm Chaser took it upon himself to build a solar airplane, puppy, and car from his RobotiKits 6-in-1 Educational Solar Kit. Before, he never had the patience to deal with the step by step instructions.

Finally, I began reading "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum to the kids, which I downloaded for free at ManyBooks.net They love this story so far. They haven't seen the movie...maybe only glimpses. I know, I know.

Whales, Planes, & Imagineering

Our first semester was all about scientists. Each week we learned about a new scientist with two weeks dedicated to one topic like Astronomy, Physics, Zoology, Botany, etc. This semester, I stopped everything. No schooling whatsoever. I told my husband, "Let's see where they go." That was over Christmas Break and now we are in May and the kids haven't really gone anywhere. I would like to take all the time it would take for them to venture out and start exploring and learning but I feel like there isn't time for that. Especially for Pilot, our oldest. No matter what, I just don't feel comfortable at this time to sit back and watch. I've thrown ideas, books, and videos out there and they've actually taken them and enjoyed them. Pilot was amazed how great the book, From Oklahoma to Eternity: The Life of Wiley Post and the Winnie Mae (Oklahoma Trackmaker Series) by Kenny Arthur Franks, Gini Moore Campbell and Bob Burke (Feb 1, 1998) was. So, I figure I'll keep doing that and see where they go from there.

And I'm not talking loading them up with curriculum and a full day of their noses in books. For instance, Monday, Storm Chaser (9), Little One (6), and I did a simple experiment with some Crisco and two cups of ice water. Little One has this fascination with squishy things. Many family members of ours have found this out much to the dismay of their rear ends, lol. Anyway, when I was browsing the net for ideas, I thought of blubber. This led to the discovery of  the experiment at http://www.kidspot.com.au/kids-activities-and-games/Science-experiments+10/Blubber-experiment+10975.htm And what has blubber? Whales! Weirdly, searches into whales led us to a disgusting but interesting video about tube worms at http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition15/videos/dissection.html We showed this video to a friend yesterday and he asked why the man was doing that to the tube worm. Good question! Yes, for research, but there is obviously no benefit to that particular tube worm. Good conversation and exploration of ethics.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I found a packet of activities I printed out for the Winter Olypmics that we never used and in it were some Sudoku (with images) pages. Storm Chaser really enjoyed the challenge and, today,  asked for more difficult ones.

Little One and I made a trip to the library today for some books about whales, turtles, seahorses, and crabs. We found so much more, of course. The first video we watched was The Science of Disney Imagineering: Design and Models. Pilot (14), as I expected, was the only one to stick with the video the whole way through. It was a very fascinating look into the processes and teamwork that goes into creating Disney theme park rides.

I gave Pilot a group of links to explore regarding beginning aeronautics and aviation careers. I will have to check in with him in a few days to see if he's looked into any. It will be interesting to see which ones he is most attracted to.