I haven't been writing much (obviously) but I've decided to rectify that. Since I'm back at Cornell, I've started up Sewing Club again, which leaves me bursting full of cool kid crafting that I ought to be recording.
Sewing Club is my little Ithaca attempt to level the achievement gap. Once a week I walk up to a local low income apartment housing complex, toting a heavy bag full of fabric and markers and patterns, and teach a small group of girls and boys ages 8-14 basic sewing skills. I've made a lot of really cool progress with my kids over the time I've been there, and since this is my last year there I'm really trying to go out with a bang, mostly by trying to make our time together as exciting and multidisciplinary as possible.
In an attempt to make this cool and awesome lasting impact, last week I brought in my first ever Sewing Club science experiment, and it went really well. Or, it went really well in terms of the kids liked it and were able to complete the mini lab I had set up, but not really well in terms of the kerfuffle I caused. See, I br
ought a really simple but awesome fiber science experiment: we took different types of fiber (cotton, polyester, wool, silk, acrylic and some kevlar and steel a professor gave me) and burned them in a tiny tea light, and made notes of the different effect the flame had on each of them. The kids L-O-V-E-D it, and only one teensy burn was sustained. They were even able to identify the tricky mystery fiber I brought! (cotton poly blend.)Only one bitty issue. I had checked with the program director who said it was fine to do the experiement, but I guess she didn't check her higherups, and apparently (this was news to me) we are under constant video surveillance! Anyway, the people who review the tape called my supervisor in to say open flame was a no-no, and I turned six shades of red when she told me... but its over now, and the kids had a great time.
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