I'm far from being a craftsman, but I'm a big fan of building things. As a kid I built my old eight inch Newtonian telescope, a spectrometer, several amateur radio transmitters and receivers, model airplanes and a few rocket motors and rockets along with bookshelves and other items for around the house. Not elegant stuff, but great learning experiences that have given me an appreciation for those who know what they are doing along with a deeper understanding of how items are designed and made.
Amateur radio and astronomy were very good vehicles for learning some physics and engineering without realizing it. Not textbook learning, but rather a good practical sense of how to play with light, understand how radio works (what I picked up there turns out to be deeper than a few engineers I've met), as well as what it takes to move a project from dream to completion on an extremely limited budget.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that most physics graduate schools mandate a shop class. I took metal shop and glass blowing. After demonstrating competence you were given a shop key and the run of the place as long as you didn't break yourself or the tools. It was a great playground. For fun I designed a small two cylinder stirling engine and fabricated it out of aluminum, brass and stainless steel. It only developed about 100 watts at about 5000 rpm, but was a great project.
These days schools seem to have eliminated shop - an enormous loss I think as this is the only place many kids are exposed to building and tools. On a more positive note the maker movement is alive with people pooling resources and sharing equipment, spaces and expertise in several cities (there must be a dozen shared spaces in Brooklyn). Ideally more experienced people will be able to mentor beginners and this can grow. Unless you have access to a good enough shop, this can't be don't remotely and some of the mentoring is best done face to face. Other programs like Dean Kamen's FIRST are wonderful for some kids, but more are needed.
Every few years I sit on a committee that looks for interesting young people to invite to a very well-known science college. Even though this is one of the most competitive schools in the country, it is still important for them to actively search for talented and driven students who might not otherwise apply. The most important criteria is how much amateur science they've done as teenagers. Much of this involves building apparatus (when looking for the diamonds in the rough we don't look for those from elite schools with established corporate mentors - those students already have a large advantage). There are some amazing teenagers with great fire out there and this is a delightful task.
What triggered this piece was a video link noted by a friend. I built water rockets as a kid, but fifty feet was an impressive altitude for my designs. The video is much more impressive and might spark a teen to think about the physics, engineering and design - perhaps enough to build something even better.
These days I no longer have regular access to a good shop and have to look around. When something nice has to be made I either restrict myself to very small items that I can handle at home.
If you have a teen or pre-teen who is interested in how things and nature works I strongly recommend they learn how to make things and perhaps they'll get to the point where they understand and can design. Not all of them will take a science or engineering route. Some may mix it up with art or music and explore other wonderful areas - I've had the discussion with Jony Ive and a fashion designer and found both were passionate about building and understanding as teens.
Of course there is no reason not to take this up as an adult - I should think it very important if your business is trying to understand consumers and design and it is never too late deepen your education.
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