This week we started making our hand spindles in the wood shop at school. The wood shop manager, David, has been fantastic in helping us make this a reality. As with all ambitious plans, we realized very quickly that in fact it takes much more time than we had anticipated to create one spindle for each student. This means that we don’t actually start spinning until next week. I’d say its totally worth it though! Take a look at the spindles we’re making based on the piece I brought over from the states. Its amazing what a little wood, a few machines, and some enthusiasm can create.
While each of the students spends time in the wood shop over the next few days, the rest of the group is working on putting together a DIY handbook. Following our discussions on Monday, the class decided to focus on how to repurpose everyday materials for DIY projects. This idea came directly from our conversations about self-reliance. The group noted that there are many resources in the immediate area of the school and so much waste that is discarded each day. What if we could find a way to utilize our existing resources in new ways?
We divided the class into three groups – each one focusing on a different set of DIY projects for the proposed book:
Group 1: Reuse materials to make new objects
Group 2: Using existing materials to make tools
Group 3: using existing materials/objects in new ways
As each group develops their projects, we’ll also start discussions about how to make the actual book itself. More soon on that!
That’s amazing how you can improvise so quickly in another country and turn the whole thing into a completely new experience for the students. How ironic and incredible that they can now *make* their own spindles instead of being handed one during a session while their learning about reusing/reinventing resources! Awesome Sheetal, you’re inspiring 😉
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thanks, bharvi!! the school here has so many great people that have helped make this happen and the students are so up for it!
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