Homeschool Institute of Science (HIS, Inc.)

I'm thankful to have this guy as our FTC Captain for the second year in a row! Well done sir!

From the Captain’s Log First Week: The Swing of Things When a rowing team gets into their rhythm where they are producing the maximum power and are precisely coordinated, it’s called finding their swing. The Moscow…

Scenic Upper Canyon Birding and Classic Whitewater Combo

Dramatic Scenery, Relaxed Pace!
Rates
Adults (Ages 13+): $275
Child (Ages 7-12): $265

These trips are designed to treat those who choose to take life a little slower. If you want to enjoy an amazing river float and see some dramatic backcountry and Idaho wildlife, this June trip was designed for you! We will meet you bright and early so that we have the whole day to take in the beauty and birds of Idaho's Salmon River canyon. We will meet you at 7am PT and shuttle you to your boat. Once we have you properly outfitted and debriefed we will push off on our adventure. Expect to see hawking Lewis's woodpeckers, nesting violet-green swallows, American dippers, yellow-breasted chats, and more.

At our lunch stop we'll take a short hike along the river to stretch our legs and take in the summer flora and fauna. Then back to our beach site for a nicely prepared meal and drinks. After great food, drink and conversation we will board our boats, continue sightseeing, and running a some fun rapids to finish a fantastic day on the river.

Homeschool Institute of Science (HIS, Inc.) Equipping and empowering parents to bring their homeschool science program to life!

My friend Bill Bonner with Exodus River Rafting and I are offering this full-day rafting and wildlife viewing on the Salmon River on June 22nd. Last year's trip was extraordinary! This is a great trip for birders. Register here: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/exodusrafting/items/131333/availability/1449333591/book/?full-items=yes

Earth Day is on my mind. Instead of attempting to wax philosophic or make the case to my conservative tribe why I think the designation of Earth Day is valid and important, I'm going to challenge us all to do two things: 1) join a local conservation organization and 2) stop using disposable plastics.

1. Join a local conservation organization: We're all busy, but we all know that part of living as Christians in the world is getting to know and caring for the place the good Lord has placed us. This is not impossible to do on your own but it does take initiative which can be hard to come by if you've got little rascals, work, and family activities keeping you busy.

If you can get out and explore on your own or with family and friends informally this is probably the best way to start understanding the place you inhabit. Getting out on your own maximizes the discovery factor, which is the most important factor for taking ownership of your place. The more you discover the more inspired and passionate and interested you will become in your place.

Why is that? Because you're acting like an entrepreneur. Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not and will never claim to be an economic entrepreneur. I am an ecologic entrepreneur, and I think that hard-working, free-market, hustling, grinding, niche-finding, economic entrepreneurial types ( I know many of you) make some of the best students of creation. We're built for discovery (the doctrine of discovery is under great attack today by the way). For the businessmen discovery means finding a way to make a living and a living for others. For the ecologist discovery means finding out how God's intricate creation makes us alive. The creation is complex and built so that we and all living things can live. The Earth, and Nature "make a living" for us. And we can get better and better at contributing to that effort the more we explore, and study, and understand the place we live.

Many of us, as we've aged, have learned to be intimidated by nature exploration. Three year olds are the best entomologists and six year olds are the best botanists. Observe children and you will find this to be true. One way to solve this problem is to join a local conservation organization or regional or national one for that matter. I'm obsessed with marine biology lately and so I explore in large part by joining a group like Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) or the Marine Resources Council and I follow everything they do. And I get to the coast when I can. I've learned a lot in the last two years!!

The advantage of joining a local group (Palouse Audubon, PCEI, Palouse Chapter Sierra Club), however, is that you get regular invites to hike, bird, explore, and meet up with other local folks (potential neighbors). This local group can become your avenue for learning about your place and simultaneously a way to meet new neighbors and love them and spread the gospel, all at the same time. You will understand the extent of your watershed. You will learn the dominant tree species. You will understand the erosion problems our area faces due to maximum short term yield farming practices. Your children will learn these things first hand and they will solve these problems. And they will do so for the glory of the Lord.

2. I've run out of time and so I will do part two tomorrow or tonight. Getting plastics out of our personal and family diets.

The Moscow Mechanics Robotics Club is helping recruit an Educational Robotics Teacher for our good friends at The Jubilee School. We will provide training and certification from Carnegie Mellon! Please message for more information.

LEGO SPIKE Prime Online Training - Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy - Carnegie Mellon University Certified Virtual Teacher Training for LEGO SPIKE Prime. Register for Online Professional Development to learn how to teach computational thinking, coding, and STEM using the LEGO SPIKE Prime Robotics platform!

Join us one week from today at the Tapped Takeover supporting the Moscow Mechanics Robotics Club at Tapped - Taphouse & Kitchen in Moscow! Our team will be there live in the flesh with this year's robot, Leonidas! 6:00-8:30 pm in downtown Moscow.

Livestock and fencing. One of my favorite podcasts, going strong.

AoR 120: Could Virtual Fence Transform Rangeland Grazing? Launchbaugh, deAvila, & Pearson What if grazed wild, open spaces were actually open? Is barbed wire still useful? Can we afford it? Are there other ways to control livestock distribution today? Would other options be "better"? Fenceless control of livestock has been discussed for decades, and these technologies may mimic herding,....

If you've been to Hawaii (I've only been there once in the airport sitting in a plane between NZ and L.A.) you know it is kind of like Swiss Family Robinson ecologically. A lot of creatures from elsewhere end up there and some make a go of it. This means lots of pressure on native species to fend off interlopers. Here is a great story where a species is fending well enough with our help to merit being downgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered. This is a rare and glorious thing.

Good News for Hawai‘i’s Millerbird, No Longer Listed as Critically Endangered Decades of conservation work led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and supported by American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and partners are paying off for Hawai‘i's Millerbird (Ulūlu). Today, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species announced t...

Thanks everyone who has supported the Moscow Mechanics Robotics Club this season! We are so grateful!!!
- Walmart Foundation
- Argosy Foundation
- Tenicor
- Apex Roofing
- Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory
- Tapped - Taphouse & Kitchen
- Pape Machinery
- Sparrow Dynamics

https://moscowmechanics.wordpress.com/

We're on a roll! Help us keep steaming ahead! https://mailchi.mp/19753210dcc7/support-our-robotics-club

Caption: Coach Jacob Moya Holding Court

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT: Our robotics club, the Moscow Mechanics, has a great opportunity to build a second robot this season! This would up our game and allow us to add a second FIRST Tech Challenge team easily next summer. Robot chassis kits are on-sale this week for $450 (originally $600). https://homeschoolscience.org/support/

https://www.gobilda.com/strafer-chassis-kit-96mm-mecanum-wheels/

FIRST LEGO League!! We have two brand new teams and two brand new coaches. Exciting times!

We're off to the ocean for the last Science Friday of the summer! Well, kind of. Second best, we're headed to the Blue Zoo in Spokane!

Join us as we touch and feed stingrays, birds and reptiles! We'll see sharks, clownfish, an octopus, and giant tortoise! Marine biology is my favorite subject to study and teach. I can't wait to answer your questions and observe these marvelous creatures with you!

Meet in Moscow at 9am as we carpool and caravan to the Blue Zoo in Spokane, Washington! Our guided tour starts at 11, we aim to be at the zoo by 10:45.

We have all day access to the zoo! We also have a classroom reserved for lunch so stay as long as you'd like. The zoo will hand out learning materials and a free pass to come back another day of your choice!

*Bring a sack lunch or plan to eat at the mall!
*Feel free to set up carpooling
*Price for this trip is $25 for adults and $20 for kids

This includes a free pass for a future trip, free food for feeding the animals, and a classroom to use.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NW55aOH3CD6aXtZEnEkXDexAilmXGBTGot1CXFu0FKw/edit?chromeless=1

Robotics Season is right around the corner! This is our FIRST LEGO League (ages 9-14) announcement. Stay tuned for our FIRST Tech Challenge (ages 12-18) announcement coming soon.

2023-2024 Moscow Mechanics Robotics Programs

FIRST Lego League Challenge

Kickoff and Season Opener- August 1, 2023

We will share food and get to know the players, coaches, and parents. During the season, the team will strategize to build and program a Spike Prime Robot using Scratch programming language to accomplish autonomous tasks in a limited time. Teams also present a project that will be judged at the end of the season. The season culminates in a regional competition in Post Falls with many other FLL teams. If you are interested in coaching, please contact Will Boyd at [email protected]

Practices will be 4 hours a week, 2 days, 2 hours TBD
Ages 9-14 $150 per player for the season. August - January
Head Coach: Cody Barr
Register here:

Moscow FIRST Lego Challenge Application Apply to be a part of the Moscow Mechanics FIRST Lego Challenge Team

You hardworking parents out there have been asking for it, so here it is, a camp for you! Birding 101 with your truly June 19-21. Fifteen hours of field time in diverse Palouse habitats!

Birding 101 for Adults: June 19-21, 2023 Registration for Birding 101 field course for adults with local birder and naturalist, Will Boyd. Three days of birding in different local habitats. Class meets at 6:30 am and returns at 11:30 a.m. Meet up point is Rosauers parking lot under the sign by Hwy 95 in Moscow, Idaho. Please bring your own...

Explore the native habitats of Latah and Nez Perce Counties with naturalist and birder Will Boyd, June 5-7, 7:30 a.m-12 noon. We will be focusing on plant and bird identification. For students ages 12-18. Register today! PM me for more details. https://logos-school-activities-432124.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/1732553

What a season! The Moscow Mechanics placed 5th out of 20 at the Idaho FTC Championship in Meridian, ID this past weekend. We had the high score of the day going into the semifinals and were the first selection of the top-seeded A2Z Robotics. I am super proud of this young, hard-working, competitive, and fun bunch! The Lord has blessed us greatly this year with people and resources. We are so thankful!

It might look like a cross between a jellyfish and an octopus, but it's actually a cerianthid larva, a type of anemone. Although superficially similar to other sea anemones, cerianthids live in tubes in silty or sandy seafloor rather than attached to rocks or hard surfaces. Before settling, they spend a long time drifting through the water, catching prey with their tentacles, much like a jellyfish.

Learn more about these amazing soft-bodied animals on the episode "Jellies". https://www.whoi.edu/ocean-encounter/jellies/



📸 by Paul Caiger © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Mechanics after three rounds!

Live Idaho FTC Championship!

firstidahorobotics - Twitch FIRST Idaho Event Streaming - Idaho State FTC Championship

Idaho FTC Championship opening ceremonies!

Let's go Moscow Mechanics!

Marine biology dissections with the awesome students at Kenai Classical School in Soldotna, AK! Dungeness crabs and pacific sea peaches (sea sq**rt).

Our tricked out bot ready for State! Go Mechanics! https://moscowmechanics.wordpress.com/

Moscow Mechanics live in Post Falls, Idaho!

FTC North Idaho Scrimmage #4 The Final Scrimmage for the 2022-2023 SeasonFind us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Kootenai.4H.Program Learn about 4-H. https://4-h.orgSign Up Here h...

Awesome local opportunity for LEGO builders!!

FIRST LEGO LEAGUE INTEREST MEETING

Friday, January 27th 7:00 pm

Do you have kids ages 9-14 who want to learn to build and/or program robots in a competitive and cooperative environment? FIRST Lego League is for them! Let's meet together to plan the development of this new team. 2350 Trail Rd. Moscow ID. For questions or more information e-mail me at [email protected]