Being a teacher is intrinsically rewarding. I work hard during the school year, and get a couple of carefree months off during the summer. Not much pay, but I’ll take the tradeoff.

Classes have ended, we had a nice graduation ceremony for the outgoing eighth graders headed off to high school, I’ve finished end-of-term progress reports and I can finally turn my attention to planning for next year.

A model railroad makes a fantastic educational vehicle for many reasons, but when you’re working with a diverse group of kids it is the wide range of interesting aspects that gives everyone something appealing to explore. One element that finds subtle expression in the models but is largely a hidden force is economics.

There is so much to do on a model railroad! While most of my students are absorbed by the experience of operating, I have more students than available operating positions at any given time, so it's a good idea to keep other activities on tap that make a contribution to the fun and provide an educational benefit.

Building scale structures is one of those things.

We made remarkable progress installing feeder wires before the kids (and teachers) had a week off for Spring Break. I was disappointed that we didn’t quite finish as I had hoped that the break would be the pause before we started operating. So I snuck in during the break and finished up the feeders.

Although one of my over-arching modeling goals is to replicate some of the operational constraints of the prototype (like manually operated switchstands) I am going to compromise in the near term in order to achieve some “plywood pacific” operations before the end of this school year.

This week half of my students, the eighth graders, were on a trip to Mexico so we conducted a week of special elective courses for the seventh graders. Eight students signed up to spend two days with me making progress on the model railroad.

Middle school model railroad: more bullfrog linkage

With roadbed in place on the risers at the appropriate grades and vertical curves it’s finally time to start laying track. At least that’s what it seems like to the students. But there are a number of design decisions that need to be resolved before any track can actually be fastened to the homosote.

One way that I try to deal with problems is to consider how they resemble other problems that have already been solved, then model or adapt those solutions.  To me, a huge portion of what we experience as creativity lies in how we are able to see those resemblances.