At mid-morning, the 8th-grade classroom of King Middle School technology teacher Gus Goodwin is abuzz with all the hands-on learning that’s going on. Several students using hand saws take turns cutting thin strips of pine into carefully measured lengths. Others line up to use an upright band-saw under Goodwin’s watchful guidance, creating mitered 45-degree corners on their strips of wood. At another worktable, a determined-looking student patiently uses a hammer and chisel to cut a groove into a somewhat resistant piece of wood.
There’s not a bored student in the bunch.
In teams of three, Goodwin’s students are drafting, measuring, cutting and conferring with each other as they design and build floating wooden platforms for wind turbines they’ll be making out of PVC pipes and other materials available in the tech-ed classroom. It’s a whirlwind of activity, with…
