Lesson plan based on Hadrian

Construct an ancient bow drill and compare its effectiveness at carving stone to marks made by other tools.

Skills and Focus: Scientific Inquiry

Subject Area: Science

Thematic Connection: Connecting Past and Present

Grade Level: Secondary School

Time Needed: 100 minutes

Objectives

Instructional Materials Needed

Story: How Was This Made?

bowdrilldiagram

Dowels, 8" in length

Handles (a wooden doorknob-like handle will suffice)

Wood files

String

Bow-like curved piece of wood

Emery powder or other abrasive (e.g., fine sand)

Bow drills, sculpting chisels and rasps of different types

Marble slab

Slate slab

Scale to weigh debris

Notebooks and pens

Activity

Step 1: Lead the class in making a bow drill according to the diagram. The drill consists of a slender dowel that is smoothed at one end to fit into a socket—like handle. The handle can be fashioned from the wooden doorknob handles by hollowing out a smooth socket in the center of the underside bottom of the handle. The socket needs to be loose and its interior smooth to allow the drill to rotate.

Step 2: The bow can be made from a curved piece of wood with a slightly loose string which can be wound around the drill shaft to make it rotate. Powdered emery or fine sand provides an abrasive.

Step 3: Have students use the drill to cut into stones of varying hardness (e.g., slate, marble). Tell students to record in their notebooks about how many strokes it takes to drill standard depths (1/2 cm).

Step 4: Compare the marks made by the drill to marks made by other tools (e.g., rasp, flat chisel, claw chisel, punch). Ask students to answer the following questions:

• How much material does each of these tools remove at a time? (Weigh the flakes chipped away by each stroke).

• Assuming that an artisan would prefer to proceed from larger—to finer—scale cutting, what would be a likely sequence of working with these tools?

• How would it be possible to distinguish these different marks in order to reconstruct the carving process?

Goals

This activity meets Illinois State Goal 11: Have a working knowledge of the processes of scientific inquiry and technological design to investigate questions, conduct experiments, and solve problems.

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