On the morning of August 30, 1996 I started my first fire by friction using a bow drill I carved myself.  As a participant at one of my later workshops put it, “I felt like a cave man!”  The feeling that comes from the experience is very deep, joyful and primal.  The experience was compounded as I had been working for 5 days for this fire.  My wife, twin daughters and I spent that last week before school at Hawk Circle, an outdoor skills camp in Cherry Valley, New York.  The week was a combination of adult skills classes, kids activities and activities that brought everyone together.  The adults had been taught the bow drill technique Monday morning.  In between the various other classes and activities, I spent several hours a day working for that fire and failing in so many ways.  Little did I know that was part of the plan.  The instructors let me try things that didn’t work so I could make as many mistakes and learn as much as possible while I had support.  As with other things in life, all success teaches you is that what you did worked.  Failure requires you to think about all the possible causes, prioritize them and formulate a strategy.  By the time I left, though still a very green neophyte, I acquired enough skill to teach myself.

            Beyond the shear excitement of “rubbing two sticks together” and making a fire, I saw vast potential in this technique as a teaching tool on many levels.  I began to teach the technique as a “lab” at the school where I work and also at my children’s elementary schools.  Everyone always wants to handle the apparatus and guess what it’s for.  Breaking classes into groups provided an opportunity to explore group dynamics and teambuilding.  With my 8^th, 9^th and 10^th graders, I used the bow drill to introduce a variety of science concepts in addition to measurement and math skills. 

            For the last 15 years I’ve worked to refine the bow drill as a teaching tool. I’ve presented my methods and results at the Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) and New York State Outdoor Educators Association (NYSOEA) conferences several times.  What follows is a distillation of my experience and feedback from my students and colleagues.  While it took me a week to get my first fire and weeks to come up with my first “lab”, I believe the reader needs to invest much less time to add this technique to their collection of classroom activities.  To begin, all you need is one bow drill set and about a half hour.  In that time you can learn the mechanics well enough to use the labs.  You won’t yet have the skill to make a fire, but as a teacher you don’t need it.   If you choose to practice more, you can acquire whatever skill level you desire.

            My most important reason for adding this to my teaching repertoire is that I can fulfill some of my curricular responsibilities while increasing student awareness of, and connection to the natural environment.  No one can look at a tree the same after they’ve seen fire made from its branches or cordage from its bark.  So, look through the following pages and consider adding bow drill fire-making to your skill set.  Everything you need to get started from scratch is described here.