I got the nickname "Mr. Hands On" from friends who worked with me in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) in Germany. In the DoDDS system, I spent a little over 20 years as a teacher and administrator, and spent many evenings and Saturdays on the road delivering English Composition, Technical Report Writing, and Public Speaking. Earth Science, and Human Anatomy and Physiology classes for the University of Maryland, Central Texas College, Big Bend Community College and the City Colleges of Chicago as an adjunct. In 1985, I worked with DoDDS teachers from Asia and Europe under the Principal Investigators Dr. Emil "Joe" Piel of Stony Brook and Dr. Faith Hickman (now Byrnie) of the University of Colorado, Boulder. We met in Wiesbaden at the Air Force Base and turned out our individual modules that together formed the lab-based course titled S/T/S: Science, Technology and Society. I wrote the first draft of the Energy Module, and inserted a sketch of the Lou-Vee-Air(tm) Car that I had adapted from an Osborne book found at the Westminster Abbey Bookstore in the summer of 1976. I succeeded in modifying the little propeller driven vehicle in the book to classroom use, and took the book with me to class when the fall semester resumed in Schweinfurt American School in August. We made AirCars using the barrels of pens, paper clips, file cards, and legal-sized paper. We also used masking tape, rubber bands and soda straws. The AirCars were a big hit. So was the book. Someone quietly "borrowed" it, and I never saw it again, so I cannot give you its title. Over the years, I had student using their hands on a number of projects. The DoDDS schools adopted my little air car from the S/T/S course as part of the annual Germany-wide Science Olympiad, and in February 1988 The Science Teacher published "Put Physics Class in Drive - Build your Students' Knowledge and Self Confidence at the Same Time." In 1997, an editor from the NSTA called it "the most pirated article we've ever published," and it was the basis for a summer course at UCLA just four months after it appeared. The amazingly successful California MESA program featured it for nearly twenty years, and so did MESA USA in nine other states. A similar vehicle was in the hands of a smiling redheaded young man on the cover of one of the HP books, and it became full-page color ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The simple text was, "CREATE!" In 1995, I retired from DoDDS Germany and became site coordinator for the LSU/NSF Physical Science Program. Working with teachers all over Louisiana, I realized that what the AirCar could not teach was Research. Every student-formed car had built-in differences. What I needed was a unibody design that kept the wheels aligned perfectly, the propeller assembly properly located and lined up, and all propellers, wheels and bodies exactly the same. Charlie Th'ng, a gold=medal paper artist and origami genius from Baton Rouge sprang into action and produced my "Mark 3" Lou-Vee=Air(tm)Car that has maintained the same specifications throughout three design upgrades that have given the car body more stiffness. The Mark VI also has deeper grooves that allow the students to make accurate folds instantly, and small tabs that make the inserts fit into the slots on the body without any trouble. All this led me to go beyond my original concept. Not only does my new Manual take the students through the assembly and quantitative research processes, it has three creative design and development activities that allow students to design, develop, document and demonstrate their own original educational devices. Having had the pleasure of working under a demanding USC Law School graduate who edited my weekly column in the Bangkok Post, and enjoying my fellowship with the admirals, ambassadors and engineers who were my associates at Assumption University of Thailand, I thought of how we could use the One Laptop Per Child and other 21st century resources to establish exchanges with teachers, parents and learners all over the world, even in the poorest of villages. This led to my final, tenth Activity, the submission of the students' research and development reports to their teacher for evaluation and screening for possible publication on my 21st Century Student Web Site. Thus, learners of any age can experience and enjoy the entire scientific process. Research, Product Development and possible publication of their work are what "real" scientists do. Many do it working in teams, as I saw my colleagues working at the Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho in 1993 and 1994,

DrHanzonScienc3's "Great Work," his AirCar Manual

I got the nickname "Mr. Hands On" from friends who worked with me in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) in Germany.  Naturally, after my employer insisted that at his universityh, I would be called "Dr.James," it seemed natural that my YouTube channed and my gmail address should include the "Dr." prefix.

In the DoDDS system, I spent a little over 20 years as a teacher and administrator, and spent many evenings and Saturdays on the road delivering English Composition, Technical Report Writing, and Public Speaking. Earth Science, and Human Anatomy and Physiology classes for the University of Maryland, Central Texas College, Big Bend Community College and the City Colleges of Chicago as an adjunct.

In 1985, I worked with DoDDS teachers from Asia and Europe under the Principal Investigators Dr. Emil "Joe" Piel of Stony Brook and Dr. Faith Hickman (now Byrnie) of the University of Colorado, Boulder. We met in Wiesbaden at the Air Force Base and turned out our individual modules that together formed the lab-based course titled S/T/S: Science, Technology and Society. I wrote the first draft of the Energy Module, and inserted a sketch of the Lou-Vee-Air(tm) Car that I had adapted from an Osborne book found at the Westminster Abbey Bookstore in the summer of 1976. I succeeded in modifying the little propeller driven vehicle in the book to classroom use, and took the book with me to class when the fall semester resumed in Schweinfurt American School in August. We made AirCars using the barrels of pens, paper clips, file cards, and legal-sized paper. We also used masking tape, rubber bands and soda straws. The AirCars were a big hit. So was the book. Someone quietly "borrowed" it, and I never saw it again, so I cannot give you its title.

Over the years, I had student using their hands on a number of projects. The DoDDS schools adopted my little air car from the S/T/S course as part of the annual Germany-wide Science Olympiad, and in February 1988 The Science Teacher published "Put Physics Class in Drive - Build your Students' Knowledge and Self Confidence at the Same Time."

In 1997, an editor from the NSTA called it "the most pirated article we've ever published," and it was the basis for a summer course at UCLA just four months after it appeared. The amazingly successful California MESA program featured it for nearly twenty years, and so did MESA USA in nine other states. A similar vehicle was in the hands of a smiling redheaded young man on the cover of one of the HP books, and it became full-page color ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The simple text was, "CREATE!"

In 1995, I retired from DoDDS Germany and became site coordinator for the LSU/NSF Physical Science Program. Working with teachers all over Louisiana, I realized that what the AirCar could not teach was Research. Every student-formed car had built-in differences. What I needed was a unibody design that kept the wheels aligned perfectly, the propeller assembly properly located and lined up, and all propellers, wheels and bodies exactly the same. Charlie Th'ng, a gold=medal paper artist and origami genius from Baton Rouge sprang into action and produced my "Mark 3" Lou-Vee=Air(tm)Car that has maintained the same specifications throughout three design upgrades that have given the car body more stiffness. The Mark VI also has deeper grooves that allow the students to make accurate folds instantly, and small tabs that make the inserts fit into the slots on the body without any trouble. All this led me to go beyond my original concept. Not only does my new Manual take the students through the assembly and quantitative research processes, it has three creative design and development activities that allow students to design, develop, document and demonstrate their own original educational devices.

Having had the pleasure of working under a demanding USC Law School graduate who edited my weekly column in the Bangkok Post, and enjoying my fellowship with the admirals, ambassadors and engineers who were my associates at Assumption University of Thailand, I thought of how we could use the One Laptop Per Child and other 21st century resources to establish exchanges with teachers, parents and learners all over the world, even in the poorest of villages.

This led to my final, tenth Activity, the submission of the students' research and development reports to their teacher for evaluation and screening for possible publication on my 21st Century Student Web Site. Thus, learners of any age can experience and enjoy the entire scientific process.  Research, Product Development and possible publication of their work are what "real" scientists do.  Many do it working in teams, as I saw my colleagues working at the Argonne National Laboratory-West in Idaho in 1993 and 1994,

I hope you will download my Teachers' Manual and Handbook, and even purchase my CD with the book and its companion, the Student TEAM TEXT (I'll post the link for those wanting to purchase the CD as soon as I can.)