Saturday, July 16, 2016

Science Crafts-(Article I wrote for Business Bulletin July 2016)

Image result for science Crafts rockets

Zzziiiing! Whizzing past your head travels a rocket propelled by air reaching for the Cosmos. This is not quite Space x and it is also not quite your backyard……it is rather at school! There is nothing like a hands on physics demonstration to literally drive the point home. These science projects have the leverage to shift young minds onto the right track after reciting the terse textbook pages. Studying the Creation and its laws of motion should be anything but boring. Alas, too many teachers and students only wistfully look at the activities to do because the lack of time, will or materials to do the suggested projects.  Sometimes it is rightfully so. A single lady teacher taxing herself to cram in the extras can find it fatiguing to spend after school hours roaming Home Depot looking for suitable items for tomorrows science or craft projects.
                Snip. Snip. Snip. Scissors, paints, glue, and other materials like spaghetti can come together to make all sorts of crafts. It is very good training for children to be involved in the school crafts and workshop. It introduces them to tools, constructive criticism, following directions, and a satisfactory sense of working with your hands. Many a skeptical student has doubtfully gazed at the raw materials before having a strong sense of accomplishment when showing off the finished product. We talk about the three “R’s”, but one thing we sometimes we miss is making something out of nothing. I grew up in home where family members made about everything a person wore including my underwear. Whether it was cooking, sewing or making a toy—it was something I took for granted. I lived with a grandfather that worked through the Great Depression and saved many nick-nacks in storage for all sorts of projects and occasions. It was fascinating for a young boy to discover and manipulate these treasures into whatever need the imagination could envision.
                We call ourselves of German or probably more correctly Dutch background, but it seems to me that some of our handicrafts are slowly being neglected for the plain pursuit of money. I think a boy or girl should have a strong sense of accomplishment of working with their hands. That means satisfaction of taking a lot of nothing and making it into something. It makes them hungry for the next opportunity to try it out. Children are naturally curious and it does the world some wonders to put that tool to useful purpose. It also creates vision for future projects in adulthood. Now that more people are moving away from the farm we need to make sure our children find suitable industry to give them satisfaction in working with their hands. It seems like sports is filling some of this childish void, but we need to give our children something more sustaining.
                As a teacher in Central California I have come up with a partial solution for our schools to boost up their science and craft output. At least it could be a start. I would like to start a program to make small affordable science and craft kits targeting our schools. A few brethren attended a local Maker’s Faire and it increased our interest in making this happen. The Maker movement has made many components affordable to make such kits possible. With a laser cutter and 3D printer and eager hands we would like to construct personalized kits for teachers to construct in their classroom.  If it is a Christmas gift project or painting project—you can tell us what message or name you want laser cut into the wood. If you want your state’s profile for a project or a picture of your school burned into wood, we could do it. However, for now the plan is to provide kits on a website that you can browse and choose. Also we want to combine this with offering bulletin board decor kits. A couple sisters already do this and we want to combine our efforts onto one site.
                 I believe in handicrafts and workshops having a place in our schools. I went to a school in Canada that gave me introductions in welding, drafting, drawing, chemistry lab, tree grafting, carpentry, bee pollination to name some off the top of my head. We made everything from Amish bombs to studying the effects of aged alcohol on mice (the mouse died). If we got done with our studies we could head down to our chemistry lab and do experiments. The one condition was that we had to explain scientifically what we had set out to accomplish. Today I can see this had a certain effect on us as students. Workshop and hands on training for students is very valuable. It has helped me to be very versatile and try things I would not have tried if I had not been introduced at an earlier age.
                What I would like to see is how much interest is out there for this kind of venture. We want to build an inventory based on what our teachers want and need. We need teachers to send us craft and science ideas they want help with. If there are fathers and dads with the same vision that feel that they could help here—we will never turn down ideas or donation funds. Even though I have a family to provide for-- this is not a project I want to make a lot of profit off of. It is suppose to be a service.  For quite awhile I was thinking this sort of project would be beneficial for places like Haiti, Belize, etc. where I have visited schools personally. Now I see we also need for projects like this here in America, but who knows that door may open up in the future. Submit ideas or donations to:
Creative School Shopworks-2793 Bert Crane Road, Atwater CA 95301

Email- jonluketws@gmail.com

Science Post for Science Kits

A Beka Book Science Supplies Kit: Grade 1 (Discovering God's World)
Discovering God's World (Gr. 1)

Since I am a teacher I decided to also reach out with this blog to help promote enthused investment into our school children. One subject that goes hand and hand with a child's natural curiosity is science. However, if not taught hands on, many of its lessons are lost on a child and the subject can become loathsome to teacher and child. Here are some links to Abeka book that I found that could be helpful to homeschoolers and private schools that teach these courses. They are tailor made for the courses.  Get your school board to consider this one time purchase. You may want to shop around, but here are the two that I found:

Christianbooks.com:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntt=science+kits&N=0&Ntk=keywords&action=Search&Ne=0&event=ESRCG&nav_search=1&cms=1


Home Science Tools:

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/homeschool-supplies/curriculum-lab-kits/a-beka-kits?gclid=CjwKEAjwtqe8BRCs-9DdpMOilBoSJAAyqWz_rGIadfoyIggUEyqNtJqKQ5tfNlQM-DMIhz8YpSTQRBoC5Ivw_wcB

A Beka Book Science Supplies Kit: Grade 7 (Order &  Design)
Order and Design (Gr.7)