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
