Newswise — Clinton, N.Y. - A Hamilton College, NSF-funded, professor of geosciences and a trainer of NASA astronauts, Barbara Tewksbury seems an unlikely candidate to lead a kiltmaking workshop. Equally surprising, her teaching partner is a male, former U.S. Army helicopter pilot from Vancouver. The workshop, which is full and closed, has attracted participants from around the world.
Tewksbury, the co-author of The Art of Kiltmaking, learned how to hand-sew kilts when her daughter began taking Highland dance lessons. She eventually gained an international following via the Internet and her book. Both mother and daughter also became bagpipers, and Barb Tewksbury continues to play with the Mohawk Valley Frasiers Pipe Band.
Pupils in the kiltmaking class include a U.S. Border Patrol agent and an equal number of males and females. One pupil is traveling from Australia to attend the workshop.
While her teaching partner at times uses a sewing machine to create kilts, all of Tewksbury’s creations are handsewn. The 40-hour workshop is offered for $350, enough to cover costs. Clearly, it is a labor of love, not a profit-making venture.
When not sewing kilts, Tewksbury, Hamilton’s Upson Chair of Public Discourse, is pursuing her research. She is a structural geologist and is currently engaged in research projects in Iceland and in Egypt. Tewksbury has also played a leadership role in the national geoscience education community for over 15 years and has given dozens of workshops to faculty in departments across the country and abroad. She has been awarded nine different NSF grants to fund both her research and her work in geoscience education. Tewksbury is a past president of the American Geological Institute and the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. She was named New York State Professor of the Year in 1997 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and was the 2004 recipient of NAGT's Neil Miner Award for exceptional contributions to the stimulation of interest in the Earth Sciences.
She is also a trainer for NASA, teaching astronauts field mapping and how to make meaningful that on which they can focus from their orbit in the International Space Station. Her July trip to New Mexico to train the new class of astronauts has been delayed by wildfires and has been rescheduled for October.
For additional information on Tewksbury:http://people.hamilton.edu/btewksbu/personal/personalhttp://people.hamilton.edu/btewksbu/research/egypt-research/egyptresearchhttp://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/tewksbury-part-of-science-team-for-nasa-lunar-rover-testhttp://people.hamilton.edu/btewksbu/geoscience-education/geoscied
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