Virtual Field Trip to English Mills

As part of learning about the industrial revolution, and factory conditions in England, we did a live chat with two museum workers, Jamie and Darren who showed us around the Museum of Science & industry in Manchester England.  From this we learned a lot about the conditions of factories and the lives of the people who worked there during the industrial revolution. In order to prepare for this chat,  we did a investigated the museum website to learn more about the museum, and Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning frame.We also watched a video introduction of Jamie showing the mills, and the process of making cloth, and all the machines that are involved in that process. While watching this video we took notes of all the vocab in which we heard, and later found the definitions, so we would be more familiar with the terms that they would be using during our live chat. The last thing we did to prepare was write some questions that we could ask Jamie during our video chat.

From the chat I learned a lot about the textile process and the dangers of working in a mill. We got to see many machines, and even watch some of them in action. The textile process was very long, and required lots of machines, and workers. People would work in the mills as long as they could so that they could get out of poverty. The process started with kids taking the tangles and the dirt out of the cotton, which was first done by using a brush, but later there was a machine that was created to complete this part of the process.

This is a picture of the bobbins on the machines that children would have to clean while the machine was being operated. 

There were both positives and negatives of industrialization of textile production during this time period. The mills brought in lots of jobs that lead people out of poverty, however there were many negative consequences and health risks that came with industrialization. First diseases were spreading as a cause of urbanization, and when someone got sick they would be unable to work. Also working in the mills brought loads of risks to worker’s health, such as loss of hearing from the loud noises that the machines would make, and lung diseases from the constant inhalation of cotton fibers, which was especially a problem if you worked in the room where the cotton was being pulled apart. Along with that, the machines themselves weren't safe and often would cause severe injuries. because children would clean the machine while they were being operated, there was a big risk of a hand getting caught and mangles, or long hair and clothing to get pulled into the machines. the machines caused many injuries and even deaths of the children in the mills. Lastly, woman working machines had to change the shuttles of that machine every six minutes, and to do so they would have to suck a piece of thread that had cancer causing oils on it through the whole of the shuttle. This caused them to be breathing in fibers causing lung cancer, swallowing oils that caused mouth and throat cancers, and often times they would chip their teeth on the hard wooden shuttles if they weren't careful.

Overall the experience of chatting with an outside expert all the way from england was really amazing, and the chat was very informative. Doing this google chat really helped me to get a better understanding of the work that would be done in the mills, and all the dangers and health risks that went along with it. I learned a lot about the daily lives of mill workers and the textile process that i hadn't known before.  I think that this live chat is a really great way to learn a lot no matter what topic it is, and it would be fun to do it in the future.

A Day in the Life of a Museum Curator

As part of our industrial revolution unit, we did an in class project where we became museum curators and created a museum exhibit based on what we had learned from documents about our assigned topic. A curator is a person who compiles information along with visuals to create a museum exhibit. My groups topic was about, the evolution of spinning, and was based an excerpt of ,Observation on the Loss of Woolen Spinning.

The first step of the curating process was to become familiar with our topic, and to do so we had to analyze the documents about our topic. We did some research on each of our documents, whether they were illustrations or pieces or writing to find out more about them. Another part of the analysis process was to find out specific citation information about each document, so we could properly cite each in our final exhibit. Analysis is important to the curating process because it helps you to obtain the information in which you would like the viewers of your exhibit to learn.

Our exhibit shows the various changes and stages of the loom from the hand loom all the way to the textile mills. The first source, of the woman spinning on a hand loom shows that spinning could be done in a home, and often is what most women did all day long. The second source, the Almond Loom is a more advanced and improved version of the original loom.The third stage of spinning, the mechanized loom was invented to spin more than one piece of thread, and increase productivity. And lastly, textile mills were the final product of spinning during the industrial revolution. In our exhibit, we also included a chart showing how these improvements in spinning technology contributed to the population boom in London.  We came up with our title because it is based on Dory’s quote from the movie, Finding Nemo,“Just keep Swimming”, and because our poster is about spinning we substituted the word swimming for spinning, and included a picture of Dory so that viewers would understand the reference. After viewing our poster we wanted to people to know that because of the industrial revolution, spinning evolved, and because of that more jobs were available in factories, which overall was a big contributing factor to London’s population boom.

After being museum curators, we were museum visitors, and we viewed each of the other museum exhibits created by our classmates. These exhibits were very informational, and helped us to learn a lot more about the industrial revolution. From group B’s exhibit, I learned that the steam engine was used in locomotives to help increase transportation speeds, and to transport coal for trade. Their exhibit had a creative title, used lots of color, and had audio as part of the presentation.  From group C’s exhibit, I learned that the industrialization caused pollution to the air and waterways, and that the air smelt and the river was an opaque brown. Their exhibit had a river with the different events along it to make it easy to follow, and included a lot of very good information. From group D’s exhibit, I learned all about the child labor during the industrial revolution, and how children worked in coal mines, and in factories, and they did strenuous work that stunted their growth. This exhibit did a really good job persuading the audience that working conditions during industrialization were not good at all for children. Group E’s exhibit talked about slavery. One interesting thing i learned was that the demand for slaves was now higher than the demand for cotton. overall, I learned a lot about the industrialization that I didn't know before by create my museum exhibit, and viewing the ones made by my classmates.

From Farms to Factories

Imagine not having cell phones, the internet, heated homes, or even electricity. Thats, what life would be like if it weren't for the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution was a big turning point in history, that changed the world, and still to this day affects everyone’s lives. If it had not taken place our lives and the world around us would be very different. In class we read about many different factors of the revolution, and took notes on our essential question, what is so revolutionary about industrialization? We also watched a video by John Green titled, “Coal, Steam, and the Industrial Revolution” which talked about how the revolution led to the inventions of many of the things that we use in our everyday lives, and it created the foundation for our modern technology. Two main components of industrialization that made it is revolutionary were people, and technology.  

The first ingredient to industrialization was people. Many people contributes to the revolution with their inventions and innovations. Improved farming was a big part of the revolution. Lord Charles Townshend came up with the idea of planting turnips to restore the soil, which helped to harvest better crops. Jethro Tull also contributed to the industrialization. because of his invention of the seed drill, planting could be done more efficiently and less people were needed to work on farms. The lack of need for farmers caused people to need to find jobs elsewhere, in the city working in factories. Another big part of the revolution was enclosure. Rich landowners were taking over and fencing off land formerly owned by peasant farmers. Therefore, the farmers being pushed off of their land were forced to work in factories. Lastly, declining death rates was an ingredient to the revolution. Because of the improvements in agriculture, more food was available, decreasing the risk of famines. Now that people were stronger and healthier, the population increased, leaving more people to need jobs in the factories. People were a big part of industrialization because they decreased the amount of farmers needed, and increased the amount of people available to work in factories.

The second ingredient to industrialization was technology. Many new technological advances and discoveries were part of the reason that industrialization was so revolutionary. The steam engine was the first big component. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented the steam engine to pump water out of mines. Steam engines were later used for various purposes, such as powering trains and boats, which led to the faster transportation, and transferring of goods. Another big big part of the revolution was improved iron. Coal played a large role in the production of iron, and because they found a way to take out impurities within the coal, they were able to create higher quality and less expensive iron.  This higher quality iron was then used all over the world especially in building railroads and textile machines. lastly, innovations in textiles was an ingredient to the revolution. John Kay’s invention of the flying shuttle allowed weavers to work at faster speeds. James Hargreaves then invented the spinning jenny which spun many threads at once. Richard Arkwright then created the water frame which used power to speed up the production even more. Now that these machines were no longer for household use, long seeds were built to house machines and workers. These machines were later powered by a steam engine and could produce what an entire industry of a district used to produce. Because of these new advances in technology, there were faster production speeds, and more available jobs in factories  the creation of revolutionary new machines. Overall, the industrialization was so revolutionary because of the huge advancements that were created, and people and technology were two key ingredients, that changed the lives of everyone, and evolved into the technology that we have today.

A Tool For Learning

For the first few days of school in History class, we completed some activities which were meant to teach us how to search and use online resources responsibly. Because we will be using technology a lot throughout the year, it is important that are familiar with how to correctly use the internet to research information. Now that we have the skills to do so, we can properly use the internet as a tool for online learning.

Our first activity was called, “A Google a Day”, which is a website powered by google that tests your researching skills. It asks you a question that you must find the answer to by using the provided google search bar, and once you think you have the answer, you can submit it and move on to the next question. However, the questions aren't as simple as just typing in the whole question and getting an immediate answer. In fact they involve you to do many more than just one search. Using this website in class was a very fun activity, But at the same time it was a bit difficult. Because we often didn't know anything about the question being asked, we had to do multiple searches, finding out a little bit of information at a time, one search leading to another which finally led us to the concluding answer. And not all the time were the answers that we came up with correct, making us have to start back at the beginning.This activity was a good learning experience, and it involved careful reading of the questions, and precise research. We learned that to look up an answer to a question you may have, it is best to break it down, and search it peice by peice, using information from each of the searches to come up with a final answer , and that not all sources are reliable, for we sometimes obtained false information from a website.  

Our next activity involved us searching, the Pacific Northwest tree octopus, and visiting a website called, “Help Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus From Extinction”. Using this website we learned how to evaluate websites, and to tell if a site is accurate, authentic, and reliable. If a website is accurate the information that is being given is correct. If a website is authentic then it is what it is said to be ,for example, the title isn't misleading to what the website is about. If a website is reliable, then the author of that site is an expert in what they are writing about, and the information can be relied on and used for research. We learned that to tell if a website is accurate you can compare its information against other trusted sites, and to tell if a website is reliable you can look for the author’s name and search him/her to see if they are an expert in the field that they are writing about, and the information that they are giving can be trusted to be true. The website that we explored about the tree octopus may have been authentic, but it wasn't accurate or reliable. This is because the title did match to what the website was about, but the information was false, for there is no such thing as a tree octopus, and the author was not an expert. It is a very important skill to be able to evaluate websites while doing research, so you can make sure all the information that you have collected is accurate. Overall, these activities that we did in class made us more aware of the correct way to do research, and how to evaluate our online sources, so that we can become more responsible with using the internet as a learning tool.

Our Important Job as Students

Welcome to my blog! This is my first blogpost, and as a sophomore at Reading Memorial High school, I will be using this blog all year in History class. My blog will be used to publish and share my work, and to show what I have learned and how I have grown as a writer throughout the year.

On the first day of school we talked in class about what makes a good teacher, and i think that there are many qualities that separate a great teacher from a not so great teacher. It is important that the teacher not only does a good job teaching the content to the students, but that they make it interesting and fun for their students. Also it is important that a teacher helps to make each student’s learning experience as enjoyable as possible, offering to help if they are struggling, and being open to answer any questions that may be asked. Being kind, understanding, and easy to talk to are some qualities that all great teachers should have. Looking back at some of my favorite past teachers they possess all of theses qualities, and ontop of that they were funny and entertaining, making each and every class far from boring.

After watching John Green’s video, “An open letter to students returning to school” I realized that not only do teachers have important jobs, but we as students do as well. John Green mentions in his video that people go to school for the benefit of society, so that they can use their education to do great things that  could potentially change the world, and affect the lives of everyone. I agree with John Green that it is my duty to use my education to do great things, and i believe that it is important that everyone uses their education to make a difference. One academic goal that i have for myself this year is getting an average of  a B+ or higher in all of my classes.I can achieve this goal by doing all my homework on time, and managing my time better and not procrastinate when it comes to studying. One athletic goal that i have for myself this year is to compete again for the RMHS gymnastics team, and beat my highest bar score from last year.