Wheel of future - SpectrUM camp kids fix tires, rebuild bikes – then take 'em for a spin
By LAUREN RUSSELL for the Missoulian
It took an 8-year-old Jon Thomas a year and a half to rebuild the bicycle he took apart at age 7, but the process kindled in him a passion for hangers, handlebars and hubs that fuels his career today.
Now a full-time mechanic at the Bicycle Hangar and part-time educator at spectrUM, Thomas is trying to impart his love of cycle science to kids through spectrUM’s weeklong summer day camp, Wonder Wheels: The Science of Cycling.
From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day this week, kids ages 8-12 are learning the physics and mechanics of bicycling by building two bikes that will be donated to Free Cycles, which supplied the frames and parts.
Nico Young-Crawford learns how to put a tire and tube on a bike rim during a spectrUM Discovery Area science camp on Wednesday in Missoula. Besides learning about the physics and mechanics of bicycles, campers have been building a two bikes to donate to Free Cycles. Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian
Seated around a horseshoe-shaped table, 12 pairs of rapt eyes followed Thomas’ every move as he demonstrated how force and mass work to keep a bicycle upright on a spinning wheel. The kids then clamored for turns to spin the wheel on its mounting.
As new skills like patching tire tubes and truing tires are learned, the bicycle is slowly built. A skeleton so far, with just a frame and handlebars, the bike needs wheels, brakes, brake cables, a chain and seat. On Friday, the kids will get to test-ride the newly fabricated bikes.
Though they enjoy the lessons, the kids’ favorite part of camp is “bike recess,” a time to hit the pavement and trails and explore Missoula on their own wheels. They trekked the Kim Williams trail and rode the riverfront trail system out to Ogren-Allegiance Park. They visited Free Cycles, Missoula Bicycle Works and the Campus Recreation Bike Shop for tours and the Big Dipper for, well, refreshment.
“My favorite part is riding around and learning how to fix the tire,” Cora Phoenix-Price, 8, said. “I’m definitely going to ride my bike more now.”
Having to sit inside and learn isn’t such a chore when there are bike breaks to practice what you’ve learned. Uriah Cling, 12, is excited to learn how to fix his brakes so he can continue riding in the areas he’s visited during camp.
“I’m OK with being inside in the summer and learning about my bike, because after we get to go out and ride to new places,” he said.
This is the pilot program of spectrUM’s summer camps, said Emily Crawford, an educator at the 9-month-old interactive science museum located in the University of Montana’s Skaggs Building.
Other summer offerings include camps on exploring light through photography, solving criminal cases with forensic principles, and building robots and aerodynamic rockets that test Newton’s laws of motion.
“The idea was to utilize the passions and skills of our educators at spectrUM to come up with summer camp ideas,” Crawford said. “We’re trying to reach out into the community and find people with special skills that they would like to share. It’s kind of a community education experience.”
Thomas, who also teaches a bicycle mechanics class at Willard Alternative High School, hopes the camps will inspire in kids a love for science through practical application and promote a sense of independence and achievement.
“In our schools right now there’s not an incredible push for hands-on learning and not a lot of technical offerings,” Thomas said. “And with video games taking a lot of interest away from mechanical learning, there are a lot of kids who don’t know how to fix a flat tire or do any kind of maintenance on their bikes. If you can teach a kid to fix a flat tire, it gives them a sense of accomplishment and they feel like they can fix anything.”
SpectrUm will be running both weeklong and day summer camps through Aug. 19. To register, visit www.spectrum.umt.edu or call 243-4872.
Lauren Russell is a newsroom intern at the Missoulian. She is a journalism student at the University of Montana.
