10/1/09

National History Day is an innovative process for students to learn history by selecting topics of interest and launching into a year-long research project.

Vacuum Cleaner

A vacuum cleaner (also hoover in colloquial British English) is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum tosuck up dust and dirt, usually from floors. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal.

In 1876, Melville Bissell of Grand Rapids, Michigan created a vacuum cleaner for his wife,Anna, to clean up sawdust in carpeting. Shortly after, Bissell Carpet Sweepers were born. After Melville died unexpectedly in 1889, Anna took control of the company and was one of the most powerful businesswomen of the day.

[edit]H. Cecil Booth

The first powered cleaner employing a vacuum was patented and produced by British inventor Hubert Cecil Booth in 1901. He watched a demonstration of a device used in trains that blew dust off the chairs, and thought it would be much more useful to have one that sucked dust. He tested the idea by laying a handkerchief on the seat of a restaurant chair, putting his mouth to the handkerchief, and then trying to suck up as much dust as he could onto the handkerchief. Upon seeing the dust and dirt collected on the underside of the handkerchief he realized the idea could work. Booth created a large device, known as Puffing Billy, driven first by an oil engine, and later by an electric motor. It was drawn by horses and parked outside the building to be cleaned.

Booth started the British Vacuum Cleaner Company and refined his invention over the next several decades. Though his "Goblin" model lost out to competition from Hoover in the household vacuum market, his company successfully turned its focus to the industrial market, building ever-larger models for factories and warehouses. Booth's company lives on today as a unit of pneumatic tube system maker Quirepace Ltd.

9/30/09

Service Learning is a method of teaching through which students apply their academic skills and knowledge to address real-life needs in their own communities.

Service Learning provides a compelling reason to learn, teaches the skills of civic participation and develops an ethic of service and civic responsibility. Service learning increases motivation and retention of academic skills as specific learning goals are tied to community needs. By solving real problems and addressing real needs, students learn to apply classroom learning to a real world context. At the same time, students provide valuable services to schools and communities.

Community Service vs. Service Learning: Service learning projects emphasize both the service and the learning. By applying classroom content to community settings, service-learning is a way to provide more authenticity and purpose for classroom learning. By contrast, community service emphasizes the habits and skills of volunteerism.