Making chopsticks using a spoke plane with a cutter blade: Learning outcomes pertaining to wood machining

Technology education classes provide an opportunity for junior high school students to acquire knowledge and technical skills through a process of making craftworks with their own hands. However, because of changes in our lifestyle, such as reduced classroom hours and fewer opportunities to work with machining tools, it is becoming difficult for students to finish their craftworks during classroom time. With this in mind, we looked at making chopsticks as a simple project that could be completed by students within the available classroom time while also allowing them to acquire a higher level of technical skills. We focused on the learning outcomes gained through repetitive cutting of wood in the process of making the chopsticks. For the tool to be used, we made a trial version of a spoke plane that used a cutter blade, and evaluated it. We then held a class in making chopsticks using the trial version of the carpenter's plane, and conducted questionnaire-type surveys before and after the class, in which students wrote words that they associated with wood. The size and construction of the trial version of the spoke plane were such that the cutting direction could easily be changed. Because of that, cutting both with and against the grain could be easily accommodated, making it an appropriate tool for teaching students to make chopsticks. It was also safe, and no injuries occurred. In the questionnaire-type surveys conducted after the class, the respondents used a larger number of specific words relating to wood than in the pre-class survey. There was a particularly significant increase in the number of responses that mentioned the nature of wood. Moreover, respondents demonstrated an increased understanding in that they created associations between words expressing the characteristics of wood.