Giving Homeschool Students a Head Start in STEM Careers

Acellus STEM-10: A 10-year STEM Education Initiative

One of the many major advantages of Power Homeschool is the opportunity for students to have access to the Acellus STEM-10 program. STEM-10 is a 10-year program that is engineered to prepare more students for high-demand STEM oriented careers. The STEM-10 program begins in elementary school and continues through high school building on knowledge gained in previous years and increasing in difficulty with each grade level.

Professional STEM Instruction in your Own Home

Power Homeschool students can engage in self-contained instruction that does not require the parent to be an expert in STEM related subjects. STEM-10 provides integrated video lessons taught by professional instructors. The STEM-10 coding courseware is self-paced and can adapt to student’s individual learning needs.

Built on the realization that coding is a fundamental ability needed by all students, the STEM-10 program begins at the elementary level, usually in the 3rd grade. When students reach high school the program splits into three career-oriented paths to prepare students for college or careers in the specialty STEM area of their choice.

STEM-1: INTRODUCTION TO CODING

In the first year of STEM-10, students take lessons starting from square zero and then advance step-by-step through the fundamentals of coding.  Students are introduced to Cellus Bot, a programmable robot which students control using block coding modules. Students first learn how to control the robot in the most simplistic manner, but as the lessons advance in complexity the robot can perform more complex motions.

STEM-2: JAVASCRIPT

In the next STEM-10 course, students are introduced to an even more complex robot named AC-D2. Students learn to program this more advanced robot through the Level 2 Acellus coding course, which teaches students the syntax needed to program in JavaScript. These higher-level lessons require a deeper knowledge of the subject and allow students to program AC-D2 with more sophisticated routines.

STEM-3: ELECTRONICS AND CODING

This course shows how electricity is used to make computers and robotics possible. Students will continue to hone their coding skills while they learn important lessons on voltage, capacitance, resistance, and current. Studies will combine coding and electronic concepts in ways that show how they are used together in the real world.

Hands-on Learning with Acellus STEM Robots

To augment their student’s at-home learning, parents may purchase the custom Acellus robots for use with the STEM-1 and STEM-2 courses. While each course is self-contained and may be completed using the on-screen robot simulator built into the course, a physical robot can enhance the student’s coding experience, helping them understand how their code can manipulate things in the real world.

Cellus Bot: Code-Teaching Robot

Cellus Bot integrates into the STEM-1 course and is outfitted with lights, censors, and a motor that students can manipulate using the block coding modules. As an additional touch, Cellus Bot sports a laser which draws shapes and circles as the robot dances. The built-in accelerometer supports program-controlled responses to movements and positioning of the robot.

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AC-D2: Advanced Dancing STEM Robot

Custom designed for use with Acellus STEM-2 and the Advanced Robotics Dance Course, the AC-D2 robot is more complicated in its range of movement and reactions due to its multiple motors and ultrasound sensors which can be programed with JavaScript. This robot is capable of swaying, twisting, and dancing with almost 10,000 different possible step patterns, providing student’s with an engaging coding experience.

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About Power Homeschool

Power Homeschool is the official provider of online Acellus® courses for parents independently homeschooling their children without teacher support. Power Homeschool offers this PreK-12 online homeschool program to enhance students’ at-home learning experience.