Carnival - Week 1 - Boys & Girls Clubs - Mission Clubhouse
We’re thrilled to begin the 2018 school year with another 8 week Tinkering program with the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco - Mission Clubhouse! We invited 13 young, enthusiastic club members to our work shop and we jumped right in by creating some group safety agreements and talking about our Tinkering School goals.
Next up, it was time to get our hands on some tools! We always start each Tinkering program with a safety tool training on the the three tools we end up using the most: drills, clamps, and the chop saw. We have a couple tinkering alums in this group, so for them it was a chance to practice their building skills. For many of the others, it was their first time using any these tools. Exciting!
The kids inspected their drills first without batteries. They learned what the many buttons do as well as how to insert and remove drill and screw bits.
The kids quickly discovered how collaborating makes tinkering so much easier and it feels good too! There were lots of opportunities to help one another hold down pieces of wood while the other drilled.
Clamps don’t get much recognition for all the work they do, but these tools are an essential part of any workshop. After learning how to properly use twist and squeeze clamps, the kids were given a challenge, “can you build a bridge using only clamps and short pieces of 2x3 boards?”
Most definitely yes!
Joanna tested different ways to clamp two pieces of wood together. End to end, the pieces fell apart easily.
Overlapping the pieces gave lots of room for the clamp pads to pinch the wood. They didn’t budge!
Lastly, but certainly not leastly, the kids were super excited to use the chop saw!
Evan, one of our Tinkering Collaborators, has the kids feel how hard lumber is compared to their fingers and arms. Its important for everyone to have a healthy respect for how easily the saw can cut things and why its important to follow our safety rules. By following these rules, and always having an adult collaborator supervising, the saw is a very safe tool to use.
Great form!
Such a busy and fun first day! We’re excited to welcome Mission club back next week and to reveal the theme of our Tinkering project. The kids can’t wait to start designing and building and soon they’ll have a chance to do just that!
Stay tuned for more next week and in the meantime you can visit our Flickr page to see more of the days’ activities!