Last year I had trouble with middle school kids thinking this was a smash-it-up activity. One day of plastic shards and metal parts flying around the space, I knew I needed a different way of starting this process. During an episode of Art 21, I saw a segment on artist Damian Ortega's Suspended Sculptures. There are many pictures of his work online, and it gives the kids better direction than words alone. These two students had never seen a slide projector, so I asked them to plug it in and play with it first. They were surprised at how hot the bulb got. Getting the carousel off the projector was a great first step in really studying how it is supposed to function during use. Students are asked to stick with the same partner and project throughout. I have checked out cameras for documenting, and hopefully everyone will return next week to make a sculpture out of the scavenged pieces.