Racer3770
Member
I'm a middle school teacher at a STEM school here in Ohio and I wanted to update everyone on the STEMmersion Pen Making course that I led this year.
The last ten days of school, students had the opportunity to sign up for a teacher created STEM course that interested them. The idea for this course came from sharing my own pens with students over the years in my classroom. I was so excited to see student's excitement over the course when they signed up too!
We started off with some lathe safety and students had to pass a safety test to be able to start turning. We talked about different kinds of pens and the parts of the lathe they should know. That afternoon, students selected a piece of wood to drill on the lathe and we glued slimline tubes that would be ready to turn the next day. Through your donations, students had hundreds of options to choose from. We had the opportunity to talk about different kinds of woods and why they look the way they do. We looked at some stabilized woods and talked about the process for that too.
Shortly thereafter, 19 kids (15 in middle school, 4 in high school) successfully made their first pen! They were careful, made light cuts, sanded down to the bushings, and were surprised to see their work come to life during the polishing stage. By far, my favorite part of the process was the look on their faces when the final piece of their first pen was pressed in.
Students made a ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain pen at minimum. Again, through the generosity of the pen community, most were able to make five or six pens using different kits that were donated. We learned how to use a fountain pen and tested some different ink and paper combinations. Midway through the course I showed students how to cast with Alumilite resin and they all made their own blanks to use for the fountain pen kit.
We wrapped up the course last week with an exhibition night for parents and the community to see their work. I created a start up list of everything the kids would need to make pens on their own, including a link to the IAP, and many said they were interested in continuing the hobby. I can't say enough how much I appreciate everyone's advice, encouragement, and donations to this. Know that they went a long way towards creating a new experience for a great group of kids and towards growing the hobby of pen making. A special thank you to Scott Segalewitz for taking time out of his busy schedule to help me monitor the lathes and for teaching an engaging lesson on the principles of engineering. I'm excited to host this again next year. Thank you all!
The last ten days of school, students had the opportunity to sign up for a teacher created STEM course that interested them. The idea for this course came from sharing my own pens with students over the years in my classroom. I was so excited to see student's excitement over the course when they signed up too!
We started off with some lathe safety and students had to pass a safety test to be able to start turning. We talked about different kinds of pens and the parts of the lathe they should know. That afternoon, students selected a piece of wood to drill on the lathe and we glued slimline tubes that would be ready to turn the next day. Through your donations, students had hundreds of options to choose from. We had the opportunity to talk about different kinds of woods and why they look the way they do. We looked at some stabilized woods and talked about the process for that too.
Shortly thereafter, 19 kids (15 in middle school, 4 in high school) successfully made their first pen! They were careful, made light cuts, sanded down to the bushings, and were surprised to see their work come to life during the polishing stage. By far, my favorite part of the process was the look on their faces when the final piece of their first pen was pressed in.
Students made a ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain pen at minimum. Again, through the generosity of the pen community, most were able to make five or six pens using different kits that were donated. We learned how to use a fountain pen and tested some different ink and paper combinations. Midway through the course I showed students how to cast with Alumilite resin and they all made their own blanks to use for the fountain pen kit.
We wrapped up the course last week with an exhibition night for parents and the community to see their work. I created a start up list of everything the kids would need to make pens on their own, including a link to the IAP, and many said they were interested in continuing the hobby. I can't say enough how much I appreciate everyone's advice, encouragement, and donations to this. Know that they went a long way towards creating a new experience for a great group of kids and towards growing the hobby of pen making. A special thank you to Scott Segalewitz for taking time out of his busy schedule to help me monitor the lathes and for teaching an engaging lesson on the principles of engineering. I'm excited to host this again next year. Thank you all!
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