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You can contact us through our email address:

stecva@gmail.com

or call 804.822.5635 or 804.822.5680

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2013 HEAV Convention - Day Three

Our last day of the convention began with an attempt to break our new friend David's spaghetti bridge. It held almost 28 pounds before we abandoned the effort and sent it with him to take home!!

We then moved on to search for more insects.  Our quest led to the discovery of a common Virginia amphibian, the Southern two-lined Salamander.





Eurycea cirrigera (Southern Two-lined Salamander)

We also found a patent-leather beetle larvae (shown below).  This beetle, also known as the Jerusalem Beetle, can grow to just over one and a half inches long.  It is found in old decaying wood where it makes tunnels called galleries.  Living in colonies, the adults feed their larvae a mixture of digested wood and poop (yes, really)!



Odontotaenius disjunctus (Patent-leather or Jerusalem Beetle larvae)

Irresistible opportunity to explore for creatures

Once we found a variety of insects, the kids observed them under a magnifier and etched what they saw to make their own unique ink prints.

We wrapped up the day with some cool chemistry - pun intended -action with dry ice.

Observing the phases of matter with dry ice

We had a great time at this year's convention!  Looking forward to June 2014 when we plan to introduce some new activities and maybe a convention-wide contest or two.

Look for more posts coming soon...

Thanks for visiting our site!

HEAV Homeschool Convention 2013

Response to our first year at the HEAV Convention
has been massive!  We have received a lovely welcome from home school families throughout Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and even as far as Ohio!  Kids and parents are learning about insects, slime, spaghetti bridges and us!  We are having lots of fun!  Check out some of the action from Thursday and Friday.

Program Overview

Science Through the Eyes of a Child

Inform Innovate Inspire

Science through the Eyes of a Child (STEC) offers science and science enrichment programs for students in Junior Kindergarten through 8th grades.  STEC’s mission is to inspire a passion for learning through innovative applications in science. Our courses enable students to explore science in fun and creative ways through a hands-on experience. Students learn to formulate questions, develop hypotheses and integrate a variety of other disciplines such as math, art, history and writing into projects and experiments.  We also offer professional development courses for teachers and parents.  These workshop-style classes are designed to ignite creativity and innovation in teaching and also provide a forum to share ideas for making science fun and inspirational for young learners and budding scientists.

Science Programs

Ready, Set…Science (Grades JK-K-1)

This course is designed to forge a foundation in science through fun, captivating, hands-on activities.  Plants, animals, earth and physical sciences will be introduced.  We will also explore similarities and differences in color, shape, name recognition, responsibility, senses, force and motion.

Ready, Set…Science Two (Grades 1-2)

This course takes Ready Set…Science to the next level with fun, hands-on activities that explore plants, animals, earth and physical science with a greater emphasis on the similarities and differences we observe. Color, shape, name recognition, responsibility, senses, force and motion will be examined and discussed.  Students will learn how to create and maintain a science lab journal to document (through writing and illustration) many of the discoveries made in class.

Science through the Seasons (Grades 3-4-5)

Students will engage in captivating hands-on projects that incorporate seasonal elements.  Examples include the extraction of pigments from varying shades of autumn leaves.  (In a subsequent spring series, students will observe and document the life cycle of amphibians such as frogs and salamanders). These courses apply national, state and local academic standards for science including science as inquiry, physical science, life science, earth and space science and the history and nature of science. 

Science Enrichment

Magnifying the Magnificent (Grades 3-8)

Have you ever wondered what might be living underneath that old rotten tree stump?  Do you know the difference between a centipede and a millipede?  Are all insects bugs?  These questions and much more will be answered in this introductory zoology course where we will get up close and personal through the use of compound and stereo microscopes. Be amazed at the diversity of life in just an eye dropper full of pond water!

Cool Chemistry (Grades 3-8)

Enter the world of laboratory science through hands-on chemistry. We’ll learn about solids, liquids, and gases in a study of the phases of matter and through experiments with dry ice.  We will also learn about polymerization, endo and exothermic reactions and the quantum behavior of the electron!

Spaghetti Bridge Building (Grades 4-8)

Have you ever heard of bridges made out of dry spaghetti?  Well, believe it or not some spaghetti bridges can hold hundreds of pounds.  To date, the strongest spaghetti bridge held close to 900 pounds!  Join us in building your own spaghetti bridge and test its load capacity to see where your creation stacks up in the realm of pasta engineering.

This Pile of Bones (Grades 5-8)

If you’re fascinated with the supporting structure of vertebrates, this could be your chance to study an animal skeleton closer than ever before.  In STEC’s skeletal articulation course, students will have the opportunity to learn the intricacies of the skeletal structure of fishes and reassemble and mount a fish skeleton to keep for themselves.

Professional Development

Developing and Implementing a Science Curriculum Web

Identifying and applying the many cross-curricular connections 

in science

Learn the art and significance of creating and implementing a curriculum web. Although this concept can be applied to any discipline, it will be demonstrated in this class through zoology and an application in physics. The many connections found in zoology and physics will be discussed and ways to implement each element of a basic to quite complex curriculum will be described.

For more information or to request programs for your school or group, email us at stecva@gmail.com or call 804.822.5635