Shop Class; Thursday, Second Period [02/18].

[special_rabbit]

When the students came into the shop room that day, not only would they find their stations equipped with interesting equipment at their worktables and a whole lot of scrap metal everywhere, they would also find their teacher looking particularly excited, her welding helmet already on her head and lifted so she could address them.

"Morning, class!" she said. "Grab some coffee if you need it, especially since we're going to be doing some pretty involved work. It's welding day!

"Welding is a skill we'll be likely to use quite bit in this class when working with metal, which is my preferred medium, anyway. Now, all welding really is is using high levels of heat to melt pieces of metal together and fuse them as they cool back down again. We'll be using these nifty little gas torches," excuse her a moment as she went ahead and fired up the one in her hand a little, "to do the job today, which is the reason we've got these extra-duty masks," she gave the one she was wearing a little knock with her fist. "This process involves the creation of a lot of heat and light waves that can be bad for your eyes, as well as sparks and tiny sharpnel that'll likely be even worse. Safety first! This isn't the Danger Shop, remember, so caution is key."

"We've got all these scraps that can easily be put together as something with some welding. I've got some instructions if you'd like to make anything in particular, but there's nothing wrong with letting your imagination take over, either, but the point of today's class is to get you familiar with the process of welding and the equipment. Everyone, put your masks on," and she knocked hers forward over her face, but kept her voice strong even behind the muffled coverage. "It might be a little hard to see exactly what I'm doing, but it's important, because if you're watching me, you don't want to be staring directly at the flashes. I'm going to walk you through how to make a spider using mostly old spoons."

And she did just that, showing off the little guy when she was finished and passing it around so they could have a closer look at it. "So it's basically melting the metal at the joints so that they fused together and connect, and if you look closely, you can see all those joints in the various pieces that make the spider. Pretty simple in concept, right? So it's just a matter of knowing how to shape and piece it all together to actually make something.

"We've got a wide variety of skill sets in here," she noted, "which is why, if you want to stick to the spider or perhaps some other simple projects, like a flower or a bird or a dragon, I've got instructions or I can help walk you through some of it. Or just experiment with some parts and putting them together and see what you end up with. It's more about getting familiar with the equipment and what it does today than the end result, though I'm eager to see what you guys have to offer at the end of the class.

"Any questions? If not, let's go ahead and grab some scrap and get to work!"

Advanced Teamwork, Thursday, February 18, 2021

[heroic_jawline]

The weather outside was cold and gross and while learning to survive in all elements was important, Steve and Tony just weren't feeling it today. So they were in the Danger Shop again, which had been programmed with palm trees, ocean waves lapping at the shore, and the humidity cranked to 90 percent.

And a huge, flat screen television. "It's Spring Break next week," Steve said, "and so I'm sure most of you are already visualizing yourselves in Japan."

"As you should! It's an amazing place," Tony said. "But the distraction means... movie day."

"So we found you a movie about survival skills!" Steve said, smiling encouragingly.

Well. Sort of.

"It'll be fun," Tony promised. Because that was what mattered this week.