Neighborhood Bike Works 3/21/14

My name is Veronica Jones, the 40th Street AIR intern, and I made a visit to the Neighborhood Bike Works at 39th and Locust last Friday.  The kids are currently working on a kinetic bike sculpture.  I came in during snack time and this was conducive to some solid brainstorming. After snack time, the young artists were split up into groups.  These groups consisted of welding, electromagnet experimentation, and frame design.  I first made a visit to the welding group, the main take away here was that welding is awesome and thankfully the teacher has still got all his fingers.  Next, I made my way to the electromagnet experimentation station.  Here, I was introduced to some very strong magnets and informed by a lovely little girl that they are very bad to swallow. Finally, the frame design group was hard at work on the white board drawing out design possibilities. A charming young man told me the plan was to make a sculpture that is round, but not too round, and less than 7 feet wide. The space in which the students work is very organized and colorful, I can see why so many impressive ideas are extracted from the kids.  All in all, this program is stellar and I am very much looking forward to my next visit.