Museum of Science and History Google Hangout

To prepare for this MOSI Google Hangout, we first went to the museum's website. We clicked around and checked out what they had. We then watched a video from Jamie, our Explainer, who showed us some of the machinery and gave us some key terms, like power loom. We looked up the words on Google so we would know what we were being shown when we actually did the chat. We also drafted some questions to ask Jamie, like "How did these machines really revolutionize industrialization?"
I learned how dangerous mill conditions really were. Seeing the machinery and how unsafe they were to be around (especially for children) is a lot different from talking or reading about it. Children's hands could become mangled from cleaning the speed frame, which (accurately named) whirled around violently; someone could easily become injured if they weren't paying attention or were tired. Disease was spread quickly because women had to pull string through a hole with their mouths, which spread germs easily. Families were sometimes separated when children went to go work in the mills; sometimes entire families were able to move closer to the mills in order to get goods more quickly and easily than if they had made them themselves. However, a lot of good came out of the Industrial Revolution and the mills. Goods became faster and easier to produce, and technology and transportation began to advance. The power loom meant less workers at that machine and more products sooner.
I really enjoyed the chat. First of all, it was cool to talk to someone in a completely different country in real time about something we were learning in class. It was really interesting to see the old machines in action and it was a really good visual as to what the mills were like during the Industrial Revolution. Honestly, the only thing I disliked was the lag in the video, but that's expected when you're talking to someone "across the pond". I would definitely do it again or on other topics because it was a great visual and helped my understanding a lot more by watching an expert demonstrate than reading about it.