Next steps after Being an Adult 101
The Trades
How things work and how to fix them. Each course teaches a whole system from the ground up: every main part, how the parts fit together, how to tell when something is wrong, what you can safely do yourself, and when to call a professional.
Being an Adult 101 covers the first jobs: checking the oil, changing a flat, resetting a breaker. The Trades go further, into how the whole machine or building works. They’re written for curious teens and adults, and for anyone weighing a career in a skilled trade. Facts come from U.S. government agencies, university programs and open textbooks, listed on every page.
Courses
Cars: How They Work and How to Fix Them
15 lessons, from how a car turns fuel or electricity into motion, through every major system, to troubleshooting, doing your own work, and careers.
- An animated four-stroke engine you can run, step and take apart by name
- A clickable map of every system in the car
- A troubleshooting finder, a skill ladder and quizzes
Plumbing: How Water Gets In and Out of a House
13 lessons, from how water gets in and out of a house, through pipes, traps, vents, fixtures and water heaters, to troubleshooting, doing your own work, and careers.
- A clickable cutaway house with the supply and the drains and vents
- An animated toilet and a P-trap you can siphon dry
- A troubleshooting finder, a skill ladder and quizzes
Electrical: How Power Gets to Your Outlets
13 lessons, from the power plant and the grid, through the panel, circuits, grounding, GFCIs and AFCIs, to troubleshooting, doing your own work, and careers.
- A breaker you can overload, a kitchen circuit to balance, and a GFCI you can watch trip
- A clickable map of the house’s power and protection
- A troubleshooting finder, a skill ladder and quizzes
HVAC: Heating, Cooling and Fresh Air
13 lessons, from how heat moves through a house, through furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, ducts, ventilation and controls, to troubleshooting, doing your own work, and careers.
- An animated refrigeration cycle you can run as an air conditioner or a heat pump
- A furnace start-up to step through, safety switches and all
- A clickable house map, a dew point lab, a troubleshooting finder and quizzes
Construction: How a House Is Built
13 lessons, from loads and foundations through framing, roofs, the building envelope and finishes, to troubleshooting, doing your own work, and careers.
- A house map you can peel from finished rooms down to the frame
- Animated load path, joist sag, wall framing, rain-and-vapor wall and dew-point labs
- A troubleshooting finder, a skill ladder and quizzes
Careers in the trades
Many skilled trades are learned through apprenticeships. A registered apprenticeship is a paid job with on-the-job learning and classroom training, and it ends with a nationally recognized credential. You can search for one at Apprenticeship.gov.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook describes what each trade does, how to train for it, what it pays and how many jobs are expected:
- Automotive service technicians
- Diesel service technicians
- Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters
- Electricians
- HVAC and refrigeration mechanics
- Carpenters
- Construction laborers and helpers
Each course ends with a lesson on careers in that trade, with current pay and outlook figures and how training works: cars, plumbing, electrical, hvac, construction.
Start with the basics
New to all of this? Being an Adult 101 has short step-by-step guides for everyday jobs around the house and the car, each with the science behind it.
Free courses from Teddy Rook Book, with nothing to buy or send in. They explain how things work in general; your owner’s manual, the service information for your equipment, and local codes and rules always come first. Work that needs a license or certification belongs with a licensed or certified professional.