Young kids, old tools....

[Nolatoolguy]

I just might be teaching kids about antique tools for a day.

My sister is a kindergarten teacher. At her school the fifth graders usually go on a end of year field trip. Long story short the field trip won't happen this year. As a alternative the school is doing a exhibit display. Basically volunteers(mainly parents) set up at a folding table an talk about there catoagory. One parent wants to show sewing, one candy making, one computer stuff. Basically a bunch of categories are in planning stage.

I had to fill out a form with my category idea. No worries my sister helped me with my English,  LOL. If the fifth grade teachers an principal approve the kids then vote for which categories or exhibits they want to visit sometime in the day. I know tools aren't high up on most kids list but I think it would be cool.

Let's hope I can teach a little history. Of course I gotta figure out exactly what to say an exactly what to show if ime chosen.

My hopes aren't to high as I know most kids don't care about tools but ile give it a try.

[Aunt Phil]

Hi. I'm Nola, and I have a brother Og who worked in a ship building factory a long time ago, where he invented the wheel.  He got so good riding that wheel around all the chunks of rock and turning them into sand, his wheel wore down and Big Ed who was the boss had to get a couple of the weldors there to invent hard surfacing and build up Og's wheel with it.  After that Fred and Barney who were ship painters figured out they could hook up a Brontosaurus up like an air compressor, and load his trunk with tiny pieces of crushed rock and have him blow real hard shooting the tiny rocks at the hull to remove the rust so they could paint it, and that's how sandblasting was invented.

Today, people who collect old rusty tools use sandblasting to blow the rust off their tools and that's the truth.

How many minutes you gotta fill Nola?

STAY AWAY FROM THE CANDY NOLA.

[turnnut]

Nola, may I suggest that you print out a description card to put near each tool ?

what you really want to say about the tool will be ready for you.

just a thought, good luck, you will have fun doing it. 

[Bill Houghton]

After that Fred and Barney who were ship painters figured out they could hook up a Brontosaurus up like an air compressor...

Trying to figure out which end of the Brontosaurus was hooked to the air nozzle.

When my younger son was in second grade, I did a presentation on geology (not that I know much).  I worked at a university, and the geology tech loaned me one of the polarizing microscopes that allow geologists to study rock structure.  What the geologists (actually, their lab techs) do is mount a thin slice of rock on a microscope slide and then slice it even thinner, until it's possible to shine light through it.  Turning the slide around on the microscope slide, with polarized light shining through it, will highlight the structure of the rock.  It's most impressive, of course, with crystalline rocks like granite.  I talked for a couple of minutes about how much there is inside everything we see, and how rocks are made up of crystals (I think I had a transparent crystal of some kind to show them), then the kids lined up to look through the microscope - and then they went back and got in line to look again and again.

You have to find that balance point where you respect the kids' intelligence but show the tools at a level simple enough for their grade level; and relate what you've got in some way to their world.  There'll be a few kids who've grown up seeing tools used, because they have parents who work on the house/car/dirigible; they'll probably be easy to communicate with.  And then there'll be a lot of them who live in the tool equivalent of those folks who think milk comes from the cooler section of the store in plastic jugs, and meat wrapped in plastic.  You may be able to get through to a few of them.

I'd show braces, bits, planes, basic tools like that rather than twybils (just to pick out one of the obscure tools).  If you've got a push drill or an eggbeater drill with shielded gears, and if the school is OK with this, I'd have a nice thick pine board set up on the table, or better yet on a kid-height sawhorse where you could let the kids drill holes.  I might have an extra M-F shielded-gear eggbeater drill...send me a message if that would be helpful.

[Northwoods]

Two suggestions for your table.
Get a U S map and put pins on it, showing where early tools wewe made. That map would also explain part of the schizm between the North and the South.
Make several evolution displays showing changes over the decades: adjustables, hand wrenches, ratchets, etc.

[Aunt Phil]

Lets remember the kids will be around 11 years old, and at least half of them will be trying to guard the snacks from Nola.

There's also the matter of 7 minute attention span in the 2016 model kid.  6 minutes for the average teacher.

I'd consider going at it in the Roy Underhill method (minus blood) and come up with a simple project the kids can participate in building.  Light weight hammers only.  The school won't let Nola do any fun things like liquid Nitrogen, and that might not really do much for 5th graders anyhow.

A lot depends on how much time Nola will have to do his presentation.  If he has a couple hours he can demonstrate building a bedsheet boat, but if he has 15 minutes he's going to be hard put to get beyond this is a saw, and we use it to cut wood.

[Bill Houghton]

It sounds like Nola will be sitting at a table, with kids wandering over to look at his table, or elsewhere to look at other tables.  So his demonstrations are likely to need to be short and sweet.  Making one thing the whole time may not work in that setting, but giving the kids a chance to play with tools might work.

[Aunt Phil]

Well he sure can't blame me.  I told him to take up ballet dancing.

Nola standing there in them tight pants and funny slippers would make
his table the center of attention.

[turnnut]

hmmmmm, now we know where the kids get their wandering minds,

they have been watching  fancy dressing  Aunt Phil's tool shows.

[Nolatoolguy]

Thanks guys...I have been practicing my ballet but no such luck with success. Maybe its cause ime not wearing the proper attire.

I will probably just do a bunch of small tools with a brief written description. I will talk about them as well as let the kids use them. Obviously they won't be using more dangerous tools. I did get the ok to let them try a hand plane. As long as the tool is blade is away from the hands an I keep a close eye on only one of the sharp tools on the table at a time. I could see a display of draw knifes going bad with some kids.

The egg beater drill is great, I don't have any but I do have three braces. I could easily find another more of either. I imagine they would try it for fifteen seconds and be like ok to much work, or be the type to spend all day drilling wholes. I would probably have a few odd shaped implement wrenches as well. Something like a beam drill or blacksmiths drill press would be great. I am sure I could track one down in time. I have a huge wooden pulley I could set out as well. Of course I would also have more traditional tools like a screwdriver an hammer.

As far as what to say is were I struggle. I am thinking of letting the kids ask questions an just awnser them. If no questions describe how there used an when they were around. I would write of a index card for each tool to display as well as help me along.

Of course I might be getting ahead of myself cause it depends what the kids vote on.

If I do get chosen let's hope my table isn't placed next to the food demonstration.

[Aunt Phil]

Here's a model you can work from Nola
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd2PNHysj7A

Maybe you can grab some quality time with Miss Teacher showing her your tool box too.

Sorry to hear the dancing is troubling you.