Hey everyone,
I have a trick I use with adults, but I think it might translate well for kids. To kick off any mechanic training program, we all sit around a table and I give everyone a piece of paper and a pen. Then every person (including me) draws a diagram of a bike, together, step by step from the frame tubes out, labelling the parts as we go. It takes half an hour to an hour, depending on how detailed you get. It's a good way to get everyone familiar with the names of the parts, establishing a shared language, so that people can communicate better about the mechanical concepts. Plus it helps people learn to look at the bike mechanically and see the various parts, rather than just as a lump of metal and rubber. And because there's a an element of 'doing' rather than just listening or watching, it tends to engage the fidgety types as well. I usually draw upside down, so that both me and my drawing are facing the group - that way my drawing usually ends up looking really goofy but that helps too because it puts people at ease. And at the end of the exercise everybody has their own bike diagram that they're way more likely to remember because they drew it themselves.
-Andrea
On 9/26/07, veganboyjosh@gmail.com veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:
hi fellow bike geeks.
josh from community cycles in boulder, co.
i'm one of the directors of our kids' earnabike (EAB) program, and we're interested in making it better. to date, we've just kind of run it like open shop with kids in the shop instead of grownups. i would like to incorporate more structure, a little more consistancy from EAB'er to EAB'er.
i heard someone at bike bike say that he had the kids list 27 parts of a bicycle as a sort of "final exam", to show that they'd been paying attention, etc. i've taken this on, but i sort of adapt it to each kid. (i realize that we all learn differently, at different levels/speeds/etc, and want to be sensitive to that. the way i tailor the listing bike parts quiz is to adjust the number of parts, as well as how free-flowing and specific i am with hints ("you sit on this part," vs "it's what screws onto the end of a spoke..."). i really like this activity, since it challenges the kids, they seem to thrive on it, struggling to remember, and usually there's other kids in the shop who are watching, but not taking the "test", so they have to keep quiet, even though they KNOW the lister is leaving out the pedals, etc...it makes for some lively shop activity, and there are usually some laughs going on, as well.
anyway, i'm interested in hearing about some other programs that deal with kids specifically. our kids' EAB progam is for 10-16 yrs old, and we've had all of them. we try to keep the EAB'er:facilitator ratio to 2:1 at the most, to keep their attention focused, and to not bore them while they wait for a question/tool help.
do you do sit down lesson/lecture type stuff? i've come up with a few visual demonstrations with parts from our parts bins, to help show how a derailleur works, the headset, etc...and i'd like to incorporate more of this kind of thing into our grown-up workshops, like (i think) i saw bicas does in tucson, from the film shown at bikebike...have a bunch of bottom brackets cut off of bikes, with the spindles and cranks and chainrings in place, and have the each take it apart, sort of classroom style. of course, with kids, we'd have to limit this sort of lesson to once or twice per night (3-4 hour nights...) to keep from boring them to tears. but sometimes i think having all the cables and wheels and spinning shiny things on a complete/almost complete bike is too distracting...
any ideas or solutions you guys have would be awesome and much appreciated. by us and the kids we struggle to keep engaged.
thanks.
josh.
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