This Week in the Classroom: 2×4 Xylophone

I ended the year with an exploration of music.  I used xylophones, pendulums and windchimes to explore frequency, wavelenght, pitch, volume, etc.  I probably should have found a way to incorporate physical waves, but a trip to the beach was out of the question and I met disaster in my attempts at building a wave pool.  We did, however, create a pretty sweet 2×4 xylophone and frame.

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Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.

Build a Bench This Weekend

My very first class for TX/RX Labs (or any other place non-school) is completed.  Six students (adult, this time) built benches with me for two half days.  We were a little crunched on time, but we stayed late (or showed up early) and completed our benches.

I want to thank my students for coming and sticking with me, my teaching assistants (Oleg, Jim, Oz and Roland) and TX/RX Labs for having me.  Most of all though, I want to thank my brother Jim.  I think I’m good at this stuff – but I taught him how to build the bench at 7am…and he was teaching by 9.  Jim taught me the value of hard work…because it’s the only way to keep ahead of his talent.  I have a wonderful brother.  So thank everyone for a wonderful class and holiday weekend.

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Guess we gotta get finishing!

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

This Week In the Classroom: Pendulum Art (Swinging From the Rafters)

A quick video of our last major math project in my co-taught Math/Sci course.  I will take no credit, Ms. J took the project out of my clumsy claws and completely rocked it!

We nicknamed this the spirograph project and you can tell from the wikipedia link that we are WRONG!  It should probably be described as pendulum art.  In reality, it’s just plain fun.

The original prototype…

And a great slideshow of other sandart created by our students.

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This Week in the Classroom: Why Mothers Hate Me On Mother’s Day

As a parent, I know that art projects can be a mixed blessing.  Some are breathtaking.  Most should go in the circular file.  Worse still are things my kids build – they fall apart and break.  They take up space.

God save me if my sons bring home noise-making pieces of art they have built.

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As a teacher, I conveniently ignore my own good sense.  I present wind chimes built in preparation for Mother’s Day as part of our “building music” unit.

Make it safe and keep the rubber side down.

This Week in the Classroom: Art Car

For the past three spring semesters (way back to my work at Citizen Schools) I have led a team of students in the design and construction of an Art Car.  An Art Car, if you don’t know, is an embellished vehicle of some sort.  Last year, I ran a sharkcar, the year before, a gatortruck.  This year, I received permission to use the school bus.  We run our car in The Houston Art Car Parade every second Saturday in May.

Of course, whatever I did had to be removable.  Nothing like a challenge.

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Over two months my students designed, cut out, painted and decorated about sixty monarch butterflies to festoon on the car.  We attached the butterflies using two methods – rare-earth magnets or an unholy sandwich of masking tape-liquid nails-masking tape.  Done right, both methods can withstand highway driving speeds.  Done right, they both can be removed easily.

I did it right.

I found many advantages to the design choices.  I found making the plywood butterflies a manageable one man task.  I probably spent 10-15 man-hours cutting the butterflies out.  During standardized testing in April, I utilized left over time to park the kids in front of a butterfly to paint.  Minimum of time, breadth of involvement.

I found some cons too.  Minimum of time doesn’t stack well against the competition.  Our school was up front, #112, behind the low-riders & previous winners and followed immediately by the political statement crowd.  I felt the bus was slightly naked, especially for a “glue stuff on” art car.  I had a dearth of participation from my students – only one showed up!  I blame this on my design choice:  by making the system so rigid, I de-vested ownership from the kids, instead of investing it.  I’m going to be making a few changes next year to boost participation.

I’ve discovered the need for a partner for this project.  At three years, I’m at a breaking point.  I can’t build and host the event.  I know which one I want to do…we’ll see which piece I’ll get to do next year. (Update-since-Draft:  a co-worker and long-time attendee has agreed to “host” the school’s meet-up.  I made the impressions I had to.)

One last reflection – this is a semi-permanent design.  I will add more kinetics props, a hood ornament and roof-thing over the years.  This was just a beginning…

Keep it safe & keep the rubber side down out there.

Community Watch: GE Garages

GE Garages.

Houston makers, woodworkers and crazed tool-lovers – GE is putting on quite a show at Rice University this week.  I went down on Saturday and got to check out some 3D Printers, Epilogue Laser Cutters, CNC Mills, Injection molders, welders, grinders, sheet metal benders and shapers, Arduinos and more.   A great learning experience if you can get the time – it’s on everyday until May 3rd, so check it out!

Perplextion

Perplexity is the goal of engagement. We can go ten rounds debating eggs, broccoli, or candy bars. What matters most is the question, “Is the student perplexed?” Our goal is to induce in the student a perplexed, curious state, a question in her head that math can help answer.

via dy/dan » Blog Archive » Ten Design Principles For Engaging Math Tasks.

For me, that question is simply: “How does this work?”

But I have to figure out a couple of better ones.  Right now, I’m building wind chimes, building rooms in Google Sketch Up, constructing an Art Car and maybe assembling a few tables.  I know, deep in my soul, the hands engage the mind which engage the heart – but how do I make students perplexed?

 

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

This Week in the Shop: Tangled Up (Dining Set) in Blue

In the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to photograph my completed big fall project from 2011.  I put together the table base over a few weeks in August and built the top over a couple weeks in September.  I don’t remember much, other than my wife traveled overseas during that time.  I remember my stomach tightening when she said “well, the country is in a state of emergency, so I might need a bodyguard” and the guys  at the lumberyard telling me “a great story” about said country which involved his friend being smuggled out of a military dictatorship.

I built the top in a fury and spent the rest of the day re-learning or learning prayers for safety in a number of religions.  Then I listened to a lot of soft rock power love ballads.  Just to cover all bases.

My wife came home safe to a new table.

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Of course, if you build a table, you have to have chairs.  I’ve always wanted to build an “exact” copy of a project from Make: Magazine.  I built four in November, and they looked like this.  I added a support brace across the back and front, which mitigated the thinness of the plywood.  As is, the chairs have some flexing but have held up quite nicely for six months.

If you build a puzzle chair, make sure your sides stay parallel to the ground or lean towards each other slightly.  One of mine tilts the wrong way and my “total-testing apparatus” (my three-year old) has flipped that chair a few times.  I figured out which one caused the trouble and made it “Daddy’s Chair”.

 

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.