I wanted to show the kids, and especially the girls, that science could be pretty and so I wanted to somehow bring that out with the presentation of the jacket embroidery to them. We have done alot of engineering or forensics on this project and the one that seemed the most approachable to a group of young kids was the deduction of the lace spangle manufacture.
So I grabbed a bunch of the photos of the historic spangles that we had taken and put them up on the smart board one by one. The kids had a piece of paper and they were supposed to draw the spangle and their observations as we saw new pictures. Below you can see one of the drawings. I let them yell out observations and debate things with each other.
‘That one has a flat side’
‘Hey some have little nips out of the bottom’
‘They look rusty’
After they had listed these things out, I had them try to come up with why some did and some didn’t. Then guess what type of metal it was. To help them, we did some experimental archeology with tin foil and hole punches. They started punching out shapes and of course making the mistake to overlap some, etc. This experiment was key. They saw the results of the punches and what they also weren’t able to make and within only another 2 minutes as a class they had deduced the entire manufacturing process. Each kid building on the others comments. It was COOL – I wasn’t sure they would get it.
After we finished talking and watching videos, we gave the kids the option of going to recess or staying behind and two at a time would be able to put spangles on the coif with me in the side office. The entire class elected to stay behind. Nine boys 9-10 years old included! Pictures of that tomorrow!
The kids were so buzzed about the visit and working on the coif that I heard from parents all night. The next day, the teachers printed out the pattern for the jacket and the kids colored it as a filler activity before Christmas recess. I got some snaps of them doing it. Early on in the project, we thought that it would make a great coloring page – seems it does!
Tricia
Tricia, I can’t quite describe how these last two posts make me feel. They simply put a smile on my face. It is awesome how Faith and those involved in her creation reach out and touch so many. You must have felt brimful after your day with these kids.
That is awesome. Really, really awesome. That makes the whole project worth it right there.
(Also, I may be a college grad, but that coloring page looks like fun! Can you make it publicly available?)
What an amazing side story! This just brought tears to my eyes.