(I apologize that I don’t have a photo to accompany this post. I don’t have a journalist’s reflexes so missed many key moments, but I’m determined to do better this year and maintaining this blog will help).
I post an agenda for every class on my blackboard. I’d had to revise my plans for the week substantially because I naively expected to finish all six L-girders in a single session, and here we were starting the third session with zero completed L-girders. This day’s agenda looked something like this:
I. Warm up exercise
II. Review Homework 57
III. Rotate helical threaded fasteners
IV. Homework 58: p347 problems 1-12
“Jeff, I can’t understand what we’re going to be doing today. What is agenda item III about?”
“Do you ever tell your parents what you did in class?”
“Sometimes.”
“Just don’t tell them that today you screwed.”
In middle school a line like that is good for several minutes of uproarious laughter. When the time came I divided the class and had one small crack team finish marking pilot hole locations on the top flange pieces. Having acquired experience at the previous class session they knew just what to do and were able to work confidently and efficiently.
Because drilling pilot holes involved using a power tool with the form factor of a handgun, every student needed to try it. Fortunately we needed enough holes for everyone to do several. We set up a rotation, and as each student finished drilling (I showed them how to place a piece of scrap wood under the workpiece so we didn’t damage the table or the floor), they picked up a pot of carpenter’s glue and smeared the glue on the top of the web piece of a 1x2. To simplify things I decided that we wouldn’t apply glue to both mating faces. Glue is a technology that these kids were already very familiar with but it was still a novel experience to use it on something “real.”
I had asked them to spread newspaper on the floor to catch drips and sent a couple of volunteers to wet some rags for wiping up the ooze that would flow out of the joint when we applied pressure.
Drilling the pilot holes was going quickly so I paused the proceedings so we could put the first L-girder together. Because the 1x2s were wildly bowed it took quite a bit of wrestling to hold them in proper alignment. Using the floor as a reference straightedge was convenient but there was no way to clamp it so several students held the flange down with their feet while several others used their arms to flex the web piece to align with one edge of the flange. This left very little space for a third group of students wielding screwdrivers to reach in and start driving home the drywall screws (they weren’t actually drywall screws, I just call them that to distinguish them from the old school flat-head wood screws that I used to spend all that effort countersinking on previous layouts).
Despite using soft pine, and despite the pilot holes, the amount of rotational force required to turn the screwdrivers while maintaining enough axial force to keep the screwdriver from riding out of the socket was non-zero, which automatically makes it a daunting challenge for this age group. Tremendous moans, grunts, and requests for snack breaks ensued, and most of the “drivers” announced that they were done before the screws had been driven home. Everyone stood back to admire their accomplishment, revealing a substantial gap opening up in the oozing joint.
“Clampers, get back on the girder,” I directed.
I take up about twice the room volume as one seventh grader so it was even more difficult for me to take a position between standing clampers over one of the projecting screwheads as it was for them, so it helped me to appreciate why they had had trouble. Operating a screwdriver takes a coordinated body configuration and motion that doesn’t come automatically, experience is required. But after a taste of the action students were primed to absorb knowledge through observation and were attentive as I demonstrated how to get one’s body weight behind a straight arm to drive the screw heads until the flared cone crushed into the wood and the top of the screw was level with the wood surface. I pointed out that the 1x2s had to be held in contact under pressure while the screw went in or it would still leave a gap.
The entire team went back at it and quickly got the screws in (well, almost. After the students left I got another turn or two out of some of the screws). Another team was ready with wet rags to wipe up the glue drips which were flowing down the side of the girder. When they were done everyone just stood back in silent awe. There on the floor was something real that they made with their own hands. Their calm smiles were genuine and heartfelt.
Never mind that it would take a fourth session to finally assemble all six L-girders. This was a journey of many small steps.
Jeff A.
