Engineering Exploration at Home

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Homeschooling with Technology

Meryl van der Merwe

300 episodes

6 days ago

The Homeschooling with Technology Podcast is a weekly show, hosted by Meryl van der Merwe, where she shares ideas on how to use technology to be more productive as a homeschool parent and on how to use technology to make lessons more engaging. In addition, she covers techie skills your children need to learn and how to easily incorporate them into your homeschooling. Meryl homeschooled her 4 children after working as a computer programmer for many years. She uses technology whenever she can when teaching both live co-op classes and online classes for homeschoolers. In this podcast, she shares all the best tech resources she finds with you.

All content for Homeschooling with Technology is the property of Meryl van der Merwe and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

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Engineering Exploration at Home

Homeschooling with Technology

3 months ago

Engineering Exploration at Home

332: Engineering Exploration at Home
In this episode, guest Mariselle Gonzalez, a former semiconductor engineer, talks about engineering exploration at home. She offers practical ways homeschool parents can spark their child’s interest in engineering—no tech degree required!
What We Cover in This Episode:

Mariselle’s journey from electrical engineering to teaching and curriculum design

The many different types of engineering beyond mechanical and civil (think photonics, semiconductors, environmental, aerospace, and even prompt engineering!)

Simple, hands-on ways to introduce engineering at home through baking, building forts, and using tinker boxes

How to identify STEM/engineering aptitude in your child (hint: curiosity is key!)

Encouraging problem-solving and critical thinking—even without a technical background

Low-cost materials and DIY engineering tools you can gather for home use

Recommended books, websites, YouTube channels, and kits that inspire creativity and engineering exploration

Resources Mentioned:

NASA STEM Activities

TeachEngineering.org

Mark Rober YouTube Channel

Sean Connolly’s The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science

Scratch Programming (Free tool) plus FundaFunda's Scratch programming class

PhET Interactive Simulations

How to Code a Sandcastle (book)

Rosie Revere, Engineer (book)

The Way Things Work Now by David Macaulay

National Geographic STEM kits

Lego STEM sets

FundaFunda Academy’s curated STEM resources list on Amazon

Learn More About the Course Mariselle offers:
Engineering A to Z is designed for grades 7–12 and helps students:

Discover lesser-known engineering fields

Explore course paths and careers in each specialty

Engage in fun, hands-on activities with everyday materials

Develop critical thinking and design-thinking skills

Bonus for younger students: Check out FundaFunda’s Simple Machines Unit Study and other science unit studies for grades 4–8.
Mariselle has also provided a Back to Episodes