Train Bridge - Week 3 - Boys & Girls Club - Mission Clubhouse

Another week of tinkering and our futuristic Golden Gate Bridge is growing tall and our train is one step closer to rolling!

Before each session the kids decide which project team they want to collaborate with. A big focus of Tinkering School is to empower kids to make choices for themselves - not only technical/building choices, but also choosing what activity they want to participate in. 

With our teams assembled, the first step for the bridge crew was completing the top and bottom frames of the towers. 

We had lots of opportunities to practice our cuts! 

Once they had their square frames, the kids attached them to 8foot long 2x3 vertical supports. Yet again they did an amazing job of embodying our Tinkering School goal of collaborating and working well together!

...and Voila! One side of our first tower is standing. Smiles all around :)

Our industrious train team meanwhile was busy measuring and cutting more pieces to build the box frames for each of the cars.

Quickly learning how to work smarter - not harder, measuring once for multiple pieces.

So many squares!

We saw lots more great examples of collaboration and working through mistakes. In fact we welcome mistakes! We think they create opportunities to learn such as one duo who quickly discovered the importance of measuring a screw against the wood they're drilling/attaching. If we don't check, a screw not be quite long enough to connect both pieces of wood.

Measuring the ideal height for the train car frames. Sometimes its helpful to try it on for size :) 

And our first frame is done!

Thanks for another great week of tinkering Mission clubhouse! Looking forward to seeing what you create next week. And for all of you out there, keep checking in week to week to see our progress!