By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook Writer
Many of us have a favorite mug for that cherished cup of coffee or tea each morning. But do you have a favorite spoon for your cereal? For a growing number of Hillbrook middle school students, the answer is “yes”, and it’s one they made themselves this fall in the Hillbrook Hub.
Students in 6th and 8th grades are crafting wooden spoons perfect for cereal, soup, or ice cream, using a mix of modern and traditional tools found in the newly-opened Hub. This hands-on project began with 8th grader Tas wondering aloud if it was possible to make a spoon? The query was all art teacher and Director of the Hub Ken Hay needed to stir up an engaging project for students using tools found in the Hub.
The spoons start out as rectangular blocks of basswood. Students use the Hub’s laser printer to create the outline of a spoon (either hand drawn or based on a template) onto the wood. Once the spoon image is printed, students then use a scroll saw to cut out a blank, or rough version of the spoon and Ken creates the spoon’s profile with a band saw. Next, students take carving tools, such as fishtail gouges and chisels, and use them to dig out the bowl of the spoon and chisel a handle. Finally, the spoons are sanded to create a smooth finish suitable for eating. The process is both challenging and gratifying as students turn a block of wood into something both beautiful and useful.
“I like using the hand tools and the power tools to make and shape the spoons.”
Students are not only learning how to safely use tools from saws to chisels, but how to care for them as well. For instance, in the spoon project, students are learning to sharpen their carving tools to maximize their safe use.
“The tools always cut much better after even a little bit of sharpening and that makes it a lot easier to carve.”
Since students returned to campus in October, the Hub, a 3,000 square foot barn-like space is being used and explored for the first time and as promised, it has become the epicenter of making, engineering, and art on Hillbrook’s campus. It features a variety of workspaces from a digital photography lab, to a podcast studio and green screen area, and a bevy of modern devices for innovating including laser cutters and 3-D printers. It also incorporates all of the traditional, manual tools from the Hillbrook Woodshop, which means students have everything they need to make wooden spoons or anything else. Though Covid 19 has imposed limitations on the number of students able to use the Hub at any given time, Ken is still inspired and excited by all the possibilities still ahead.
“It’s fantastic and we’re just getting started,” says Ken. “We’re limited to the number of students and classes that can use the space right now, but ideally, this will be a heavily utilized, vibrant space where students and teachers are making the most of what the Hub has to offer.”
A Hillbrook education has long included building and creating in the woodshop, art rooms, and computer/idea lab, but now the Hub is taking those creative possibilities even further. Ken describes the Hub as a modern workshop where students have the tools they need to imagine, build, engineer and create. “It’s the artrooms and woodshop reimagined,” says Ken, “sure, we will do a lot of wood projects in here, but we’ll be doing other things, too. The Hub and its myriad of tools offer all sorts of creative opportunities for students.”
You could think of it as a big mixing bowl of opportunity where students stir in their own ingredients. This fall, the student-led project was wooden spoons, but there’s no telling what they’ll cook up next.