The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our lives over the last few months. It has not only restricted us to the limited living space of our own home, we are also restricted to our own home with our children. Whether they’re active preschoolers or reserved teenagers, it’s hard to keep them engaged while you do your office work or household chores. Putting a big question on continuing their education at home, and things may commence spiraling out of control. Parents homeschooling their kids know science can be a difficult subject to teach. Even if your kid knows some basics of science, some children simply do not like science and try their best to skip lessons. Interestingly, online science classes have now become one of the most exciting outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis because the protection of children is particularly important for all parents. Online science classes allow parents to hand over some of the responsibilities to online instructors. Your kids can engage with an instructor during a live class or with interactive courses that help homeschool students learn at their own speed.
Online classes are no less than a blessing for your growing kids because it brings a full-fledged curriculum as per the comfort of your home. Therefore, the kid or the parents do not need to go out of the house to continue the learning. Here are Top Ten Online Science Classes for your kids that will help homeschooling parents teach science to their kids.
1. BYJU’S
Indian Ed-tech major BYJU’S offers extremely personalised and effective science learning programs for classes 1 – 12 (K-12), and aspirants of competitive exams like IAS, JEE, and so on. The online learning platform allows kids to access scheduled online classes, doubt resolution, and one-on-one guidance from dedicated mentors, who will be in touch with both parents and students regularly. The instructors also regularly access the students’ performance through home assignments and class tests to assess their performance and advise them on their learning approach and other problems. Byju’s e-learning app has also been listed among the world’s top 10 most-downloaded e-learning apps during the covid-19 outbreak. Parents can choose between weekday and weekend batches to attend scheduled mathematics and science classes as per their convenience. The prices of Byju’s classes starts from Rs. 3,333.33/month and pricing are entirely dependent on the plan you select, plans vary as per grade and the age group. Moreover, they also provide a free demo class that helps the parents to understand Byju’s pricing and helps them pick a perfect plan for their kid.
2. EdX
EdX is an online learning platform founded at Harvard and MIT, offers more than 3000 free online courses from partner universities all over the world. Engaging, free, self-paced courses on a wide range of topics mean you can learn the fundamentals of neuroscience from Harvard instructor David Cox or explore the interesting facts of the Universe at the comfort of your home. The EdX Course resources include engaging and High-quality videos, reading materials, discussion forums, and graded tasks.Their science courses are generally made up of weekly modules with pre-recorded HD videos that you can watch on a schedule or at your own pace. There are supplemental readings and student discussion forums as well as homework assignments and assessments like short exams or quizzes. EdX science courses are usually free, but students will have to pay a low fee ranging from $50-$10 to take a “verified certificate” version of the class, which includes a verified certificate as well as access to unlimited tutorials.
3. Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a personalized learning platform for students of all ages offering engaging classes on science, math, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and so on. The online learning platform provides access to the practice exercises, Ads-free instructional videos in more than 40 languages, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace. They also offer a set of daily schedules designed by experts for students from pre-K through the 12th standard. The best thing about Khan Academy is that their online courses are always free and contain a repository of trusted, standards-aligned videos, articles, practice questions, and lessons for all the learners. Moreover, the platform also offers live webinars with education professionals every day and has posted helpful guides and FAQs to help parents and teachers during the COVID-19 crisis.
4. Coursera
Global online learning platform Coursera offers school kids access to a diverse range of science courses, specializations, and even certificates. Established in 2012 by Stanford computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, the platform associates with top universities and other institutions to provide engaging courses to kids. At present, over 3,700 organizations use Coursera for Campus to deliver online learning to over 2.4 million learners across the globe. The platform collaborates with leading universities to help students gain logical skills with Professional Certificates from industry educators like Google, Intuit, Salesforce, Amazon, IBM, and Facebook. The price for courses with certificates starts at about $49 and Coursera users can apply for financial aid if they need help paying for certificates courses. The online certificate programs use all-in pricing, which means the price involves all the courses or credit hours required to complete the degree, and they start at about $9,000, whereas, $2,000 is the price for MasterTrack certificates.
5. Scholastic Learn At Home
World’s largest children’s books publishing and distribution company, Scholastic has recently started an online learning platform “Scholastic Learn At Home” to support virtual learning plans. The ed-tech platform provides open access to daily learning journeys divided into four grade spans—Pre-K–K, Grades 1–2, Grades 3–5, and Grades 6–9+, covering, STEM, Science, Earth Science, etc. The primary goal of the online course is to promote the intellectual and personal growth of all children, starting with literacy, the cornerstone of all learning. For just $5.99 a month, your kids will get access to the resources which are full of engaging activities, stories, and games tailored to your child’s age and skills. One of the most unique parts of Learn at Home by Scholastic is that it also provides guided activities for parents to do with their kids. Their appealing lessons will inspire your kid to grow the core skills they require for school. Your kids learn and advance on their own as they have fun with stories and engaging lessons.
6. Future Learn
Founded in 2012, FutureLearn is a London-based online learning platform that offers captivating online courses on science, micro-credential programs, and online certificates. Their online courses are delivered and accessible on mobile, tablet, and desktop, so you can learn at the comfort of your home. The online learning platform also has wonderful peer-to-peer discussion forums and a well-built curriculum. Notably, each of their online courses can be taken for free, except for premium courses, micro-credential programs, and online degrees. When a course begins, students are given access to weekly units with various types of learning materials such as quizzes, videos, and tasks. The majority of their online courses can be audited for free. Auditing, however, does not include certificates, which cost about $39 to $99. Moreover, premium FutureLearn courses cannot be audited for free and cost around $100 to $400 and Micro-credential programs and online degrees are the most expensive, starting at $600.
7. Udemy
Udemy is a popular online learning platform that offers a huge array of courses, which range from science and finance to music, design, coding, and more, all taught by experts in the field and available at our own pace, a major plus when we’re juggling work, family, and Covid-19 crisis. The online learning platform is extremely user friendly with a very basic, standard-looking interface. Udemy offers about 150,000 courses covering a range of diverse topics. All courses typically include hours of on-demand videos, articles, downloadable resources, a certificate of completion, and unlimited access. Their science courses can often be purchased at a much lower price, typically ranging from $11-$30. Thanks to the frequent sales, Udemy is actually one of the cheapest online learning alternatives. If you are confused if a course is right for your kid, you can start a free trial and watch a handful of lectures the instructor has picked before investing. Moreover, if you purchase it and aren’t satisfied, every course purchased on Udemy can be refunded within 30 days of buying.
8. Alison
Alison is a free online learning platform that offers online courses on life science, chemistry, physics, engineering, etc and skills training online courses. Launched in 2007 by Irish social entrepreneur Mike Feerick, it is committed to delivering free educational opportunities for students of all age groups. Currently, Alison offers more than 1,500 courses and has reached 14 million learners in 195 countries. To enroll in the courses, students first sign up for a free account and create a personal account. Learners then register for their desired courses. They offer streamlined, self-paced courses that provide instruction on a single topic. Each course takes less than three hours to complete. They’re free to learners who don’t want a formal credential. They also offer an ad-free experience through a premium membership that costs 7.99 euros (about $8.70) a month, 79 euros ($86) a year, or 499 euros ($545) for unlimited access. Moreover, premium members also get access to additional features and discounts on certificate prices.
9. Outschool
Outschool, a San Francisco-based online learning startup, offers thousands of engaging live online classes for young kids ages 3 to 18. Outschool offers amusing, social, and self-directed learning experiences unlike anywhere else in the world. Students can take core subjects like math, forensic science, and science, LEGO Engineering as well as interest-based topics like Spanish with Taylor Swift, etc. Outschool teachers design courses on topics ranging from Biology to space science to video game design and then teach students in groups via Zoom, a video conference app. This lets kids communicate directly with instructors and share their passion with the teacher and the rest of the learners. Outschool online classes, which usually run between 30 and 60 minutes long at $5 to $20 per hour, are meant for children ages three to 18 and the enrollment size is decided by the teacher.
10. Skyfi Labs
Skyfi Labs is an online platform providing online science classes for kids and Engineering students. They offer various courses in the field of Aerospace, Augmented Reality, Robotics, and STEM to develop skills required by the industry and can be absorbed directly upon graduation, helping companies reduce training costs. They offer one on one live online robotics, coding, Drones technology classes for kids. Skyfi Labs science courses are certified and also feature SEE (Skyfi Evaluation Engine) which helps examine student’s performance, map skills and recommends perfect matches to the companies during the interview. Soon after registration, the student will receive a call from his/her mentor where they can finalize the schedule as per their comfort and a kit of software tools required will be sent within 24 hours of registration. The price of the online courses starts from Rs 9999 and students can also book a free trial before picking the best course for themselves.
Conclusion
While most of us stuck at home during the coronavirus lockdown, the world seems to have moved online. From universities and schools to small and big companies, everybody is managing to keep up with their daily activities while working from home. However, we should learn to take this extra time at home as a benefit. We should get to spend more time with our family and finally get on to developing new hobbies or bring back our old ones. For our kids, it’s easier to pick up on a different set of skills while still young. They are productive, full of energy, and want to be entertained at all times. So why not take benefit of some of the amazing science courses that are available online?
