Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 22:17:14 -0500
From: Eric Muller <emuller@exploratorium.edu>
To: pinhole
Subject: Cotton
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Thu, 10 Jul 1997 18:22:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ron Hipschman <ronh>
Message-Id: <199707110122.SAA27336@isaac.exploratorium.edu>
Subject: Re: Cotton
To: KennethBel@aol.com
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 18:22:07 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <970710125017_-626046962@emout16.mail.aol.com> from "KennethBel@aol.com" at Jul 10, 97 12:50:20 pm
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Kenneth,
Thanks for the info. I'll pass it along to our teacher training programs
here at the Exploratorium.
Ron
>
> Dear Ron,
>
>
> I am a third grade teacher in South Carolina. I have had good results
> teaching with raw cotton. I get a dry plant in the fall and take it to
> class. My kids pick the cotton bolls and pull them apart separating the
> seeds from the fiber. We weigh what they have hand-cleaned and compute the
> kid-hours per pound or kilo. Then we use our home-made cotton gin and clean
> an equal amount of cotton in a tiny fraction of the time. This is a direct,
> HANDS-ON student experience with the concept of labor saving devices. I
> always go on and discuss the irony that the cotton gin made slave work harder
> in the southern states. There was no longer a yearly stint sitting in the
> shade hand-cleaning cotton. The cotton gin demanded larger crops and slaves
> spent more time in the hot, dusty fields planting, weeding, and picking.
> After we clean our cotton, the kids twist the fluff into long strings and
> we do some simple weaving on our home-made looms. We always save enough
> strings to twist together into a jump rope which we use all year.
> I have been talking about my Cotton Unit for several years and people from
> other states have asked if I could send them some raw cotton. I decided to
> put this on the internet to see how much interest there is. I called our
> State Agricultural Inspector. He has given me guidelines to follow so that
> the cotton is pest and chemical free.
> I can send a box containing one large dried plant with open bolls intact
> nested in a bushel of hand-picked cotton bolls. This should be enough for a
> class of 20 to 25 students.
> I am getting a list together now so I will know how much cotton to
> reserve. The farmer, a School Board Member, needs to know very soon how much
> cotton we will need to hand-pick. This cotton will be USDA inspected and
> cleared for shipping. The price will be $20 plus postage. Please send me
> your Zip Code and I will calculate shipping.
> The lesson plans that cross the curriculum and easy plans for building
> your own hand-cranked cotton gin and loom can be found at <A HREF="http://memb
> ers.tripod.com/~KennethBell/CottonPlans">Cotton Activities for K-12 Teachers</
> A> http://members.tripod.com/~KennethBell/CottonPlans.
>
> Please e-mail kennethbel@aol.com
> or write: Kenneth E. Bell
> 402 Railroad Ave. W.
> Allendale, SC 29810
> or call: 803-584-1559
>
> Please forward this to someone who might be interested.
>
>
>
========================================================================
Ron Hipschman, Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 563-7337 (415) 739-5052 (pager)
ronh@exploratorium.edu http://www.exploratorium.edu