My boys are back in town and they are locked and loaded – here’s a few glamor shots of their beautiful simple benches.
Remember – if these look good to you, come build your own version with me at TX/RX Labs in May.
Monthly Archives: February 2012
And Sometimes the Art …
…isn’t always about nature.
Filed under Classroom Project, Education, This Week In the Classroom
Sometimes Art Piles Up on My Desk…..
…and it makes my world colorful.
Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.
Filed under Teacher Tip
Come Build the Simple Bench!
Are you in the Houston area? Ever wanted to get started woodworking? Maybe you just enjoy benches as much as I do?
Join me for the Wood Workshop at TX/RX Labs on Sat. & Sun. May 26th & 27th (5/26 & 5/27) from 9am-12pm.
The Finished Bench
This Week In the Classroom: The Simple Bench
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve let y’all into the woodshop at work. We’ve been building the “simple bench”. If you’ve been reading this blog long, you know I love building benches – butterfly benches, green benches, small benches and long benches. My boys have been working off this pattern:
And I give them lots of flexibility in said pattern. We started with three 3 foot lengths of 1×12 stock. The students then cut their bench seats to any length as I rip the rest of the stock into 3 1/2″ strips for the aprons and 5 1/2″ strips for legs. Then, they cut their aprons and legs to length as I rip the seat to finished width. The left over stock from that rip becomes the stretcher. A few bridle joints (I think that’s what they are) and we have ourselves a rock solid base.
It’s taken nearly five weeks to cut and assemble the benches (~25 hrs of classtime). Next week, the students will be able to either stain or paint their work. That should take less time – maybe a day or two. I’m expecting this project to be complete by the time report cards come out.
Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.
Teacher Tip: Use Two Bench Hooks
Dadoes are much easier to cut when you use two bench hooks….
You can even chisel out the waste right there. My students are having such success using bench hooks, knee height workbenches and the tool chest I’m reconsidering my thoughts on bigger workbenches. I’d like a better assembly table, but it ain’t nothing if I don’t have it.
The kids are killing the simple bench project – in-progress pics coming soon.
Filed under Classroom Project, Teacher Tip, This Week In the Shop, Workshop
Updated: The Tool Chest
Filed under Classroom Project, Education, Jigs, Outdoor & Environmental, Storage, This Week In the Shop, Workbench, Workshop
Technology in Education: The Digital STEM Fair
You’ve been to a science fair, right? Tri-fold boards, volcanoes and blue ribbons. This month, my colleagues and I shepherded the “STEM Fair” into existence. The STEM Fair is a showcase for any Science, Technology, Engineering or Math project our students produced over the course of a month. My school produced forty to fifty blog posts, hundreds of digital pictures, a dozen two minute videos, thirty presentations and about ten individual physical showcases. I have a room filled with Japanese art-chemistry, rocket cars, rockets of various propulsion methods, a small robot, a Lego-Branded robot, paper gliders, a seesaw and more. How can a teacher show off his students work to parents, grandparents, etc who may not be able to attend the event physically?
The Digital STEM Fair.
I have I ever told you this is my other…other….other blog? I have a handle at Lumberjocks, I blog here and I blog at school. Well, my students blog. I facilitate the school’s Website Committee. Last year, I revamped the committee’s operation – launching a WordPress-powered blog. This year, I opened the site to the various other parts of school – student newspaper, various academic classes and clubs. This week, I will use this student-centered, student-owned tool to create a digital gateway into the Math/Sci department at my school.
The Plan:
A splash page which directs parents to the different classes. The classes will link to STEM Project Proposals, Updates & Final Posts. All of this can be sorted by a strong tagging system. WordPress also makes certain posts “sticky” – meaning they always lead the blog’s front page. I’d like to “farm” this work out to my students, but most likely I’ll need to do this, as I have administrator access.
Next, I’ll have the students upload their videos to a web-hosting service and embed those videos into the posts itself. I use Youtube as a video host, so I need to turn of the “suggested video” option. If a “suggested video” happens to be controversial, we don’t want people thinking it’s the school’s issue.
Lastly, my students will create a inclusive slideshow of the work they did, embedding this into the splash page.
Our school does have some rules which I should be aware of -
1. Each kid’s parents/guardian signs a media release.
2. Only use first names.
3. Any video is unsearchable & password protected. WordPress can password protect individual posts and many sites like Youtube have an unlisted option.
4. Don’t put anything up which shows the school in a bad light…
5. Last but not least, turn comments off.
I like these rules – if you blog about children, take them into account. Teacher Tom only posts pictures of kids hands and keeps the screen squiggly. Other bloggers do the same. I tend to only take shots of the finished products. Unlike my examples, the student blog has a kid-driven focus – its intent is to show our students and their competence. I try to keep that in mind as I put student work “out there”.
Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.
