Online STEM Sequential Design Class Series for Grades 3 - 12
Class Descriptions, Dates/Times, Costs and Instructor Bio are included on this page in bold titles when scrolling down. The first classes begin the week of January 13th, 2025, so sign your children up ASAP before classes fill up. Spaces are limited!
Children and young people of the current world will be the designers of our future world. AI could have a negative effect of dumbing down young people’s intelligence by providing an easy route away from critical thought. To combat this threat, parents must nurture the interest, imagination and talent in their children who draw, ask questions about the world, who are drawn to toys such as Legos and keep them stimulated with exercises and projects which promote high forms of critical thought.
This curriculum of three and four STEM-based design classes has been intentionally created as a sequence which sets a solid foundation of basic but interesting design with a tiny home, then evolves to designing a sustainable home or public space/building, which finally culminates in designing the layout for a future city in the third class and an original invention design in the fourth class. Students who take these classes will study the background of the problems as well as best practices to develop their own original designs. Student’s final design projects will result in 2D and 3D digital renders and some physical models with accompanying reports on the background of the problem/sites, case studies and described logic and reasoning for their design decisions, just as professionals do in the design industries, such as architecture.
Concerning STEM, all projects for all of my classes incorporate aspects of science, technology, engineering and math.
Concerning critical thought, students make a choice of a specific piece of land in the world in which to develop their design project. Students will research and learn about the history of the site, the climate, demographics (using actual census data from the specific country), possible natural disasters, and appropriate/available sustainable materials in the area to be incorporated into their final design.
Feedback on the students final projects will be given orally by their fellow classmates and myself following their online presentation at the end of each 5-week session. Over the past five years, I have successfully taught these classes hundreds of times with children from 3rd grade through 12th grade through UCSD (University of California San Diego) Sally Ride Science Academy. Elementary students may take the first three classes in the design sequence while middle/junior high and high school students qualify to take all four classes (including the invention/patent class) in the sequence.
Each online class is five weeks long with one 1 hour 20 minute class session per week as follows:
Winter and Spring class start times are in Pacific Standard Time based on common San Diego Unified Early Release Days. Students from outside of the San Diego region are also eligible and encouraged to participate in these classes. Elementary: Thursdays 2pm Middle/Jr. High School: Wednesdays 2pm High School: Mondays 4pm
Design Session 1 - Tiny Homes
Smaller living with less impact on nature is key to future sustainability. Students will learn why people choose to live in tiny homes and how creative they can be while doing so. Students will learn about building codes, inventive interior/furniture design, floor plans, and create both 3D digital and physical models of their tiny home design. Students will present their background research as well as the 2D floorplan with 3D digital home render design to the rest of class on the final online class session. Dates: January 13th - February 14th Appropriate for Elementary, Middle/Jr. High, High School agesScreenshots of some past student tiny home project designs
Design Session 2 - Virtual Exploration of the World to Design a Sustainable Home
Understanding the world and its challenges is one of the first steps to sustainable development. A different region of the world will be explored virtually by means of Google Maps/Earth to display the issues and study development and architecture. Every student will pick a specific piece of land to design a sustainable home for the average family size and income of that specific location. Students will learn how geography interacts with design, sustainable home design, appropriate sustainable building materials, and census reports. Each student will present their background research as well as the 2D floorplan with 3D digital home render design to their classmates on the final day of class. Dates: February 17th - March 21st Appropriate for Elementary, Middle/Jr. High and High School ages
Screenshots of a past student sustainable home project design
Design Session 3 - Envisioning and Designing Sustainable Cities of the Future
According to the United Nations, 2007 was the first time that more people lived in urban areas than rural areas throughout the world. Modern and future cities must develop in a sustainable manner to grow in a healthy manner. Students will learn about the first ancient cities, how cities grow successfully, obstacles to growth, the evolution of public transportation and innovations in transportation, energy generation and water systems. Each student will pick a specific area to develop a new city or redevelop an existing city with detail to functional areas and layout. On the final day of class, students will present their background research as well as the 2D and 3D city designs to their classmates. Dates: March 24th - April 25th Appropriate for Elementary, Middle/Jr. High and High School ages
Screenshots of some past student city project designs
Design Session 4 - Developing an Invention and Writing a Patent I have a great idea, but how do I even get started to develop and design it? Students will learn what is and what is not patentable. Each student will come up with an idea to develop into an invention. They will conduct research to understand the problem they are attempting to solve as well as related inventions (prior art). Students will learn about and create diagrams to describe their invention as well as develop a patent application in the official manner that the United States Patent & Trademark Office requires. On the final day of class, students will present their proposed inventions during a “Shark Tank” styled session to their classmates. Dates: April 28th - May 30th Appropriate for Middle/Jr. High and High School ages
Screenshots of past student proposed invention project designs cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality of original ideas.
Five week class prices:
One 5 week class: $200 ($40 per class session) Two 5 week classes special discount: $350 ($35 per class session) Three or four 5 week classes special discount: $450 (3 courses) or $600 (all four courses) $30 per class session This sequence of these design classes is intentional. Each class is meant to build on the next concerning understanding, skill and ability, therefore signing your children up for the entire sequence is encouraged, although not required. Currently, there is only room for 15 students in each online class, so you are encouraged to sign your children up ASAP! Children who are signed up for the entire sequence will be prioritized Please send an email to trevorrextine@gmail.com with the subject heading "ONLINE STEM DESIGN CLASSES" to sign up ASAP.Other detailed examples of past student projects can be viewed HERE (link to Google folders)
About the Instructor
Over the past 10 years, Trevor Stine has been a professor at NewSchool of Architecture + Design, where he teaches World Regional Geography, Introduction to Research, Urban Sociology, Mexico-US Border Studies and GIS (Geographic Information Systems/Mapping/Spatial Analysis). He has also been an instructor for the UCSD Sally Ride Science Academy over the past 5 years, teaching hundreds of sustainable design based-history/geography/innovation classes for elementary, middle/jr. and high school students in-person and online.Earlier in his career, Trevor lived in the wilderness of Tennessee for two years as a wilderness counselor for high school aged adjudicated youths. In San Francisco, he managed four multi-million dollar philanthropic campaigns for the United Way of the Bay Area. He took numerous, long solo motorcycle journeys throughout Mexico, Central America, and the United States in order to undertake academic research and promote his international development organization, Pangea Proxima, focused on sustainable development. Trevor also founded Evolution Maps, a mapping, and spatial analysis company, which provided dynamic field maps to health and emergency workers to successfully end the Ebola pandemic in Liberia in 2014. While teaching at NewSchool of Architecture & Design, Trevor has led and taught many cross-border natural building weekend and spring break natural building workshops in Baja for his architecture students. Trevor has authored three published patents concerning biometric repositories and anti-identity theft solutions.
For more details see Trevor Stine’s LinkedIn professional profile: www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-stine-2152b74
