The fifth and 6th grade students at Clear Spring are starting their annual study of Arkansas, and we rotate projects every two years repeating the same set from two years before. The first project is a mineral collection box in which they will keep a collection of 9 different minerals from their travels in the spring. The photos above show the students at work and finished boxes. I demonstrated making the dividers using the sled on the table saw and stop blocks to position the half-lap cuts that allow the dividers to be assembled. Next week the students will make scroll-sawn puzzles of the various geographic regions of the state. Additional projects in this unit will be making Arkansas shaped cutting boards, and making sieves which will be used in diamond mining when they visit the only diamond mine in North America, The Crater of Diamonds State Park.