Some Focus on Focus
Day four down on the farm here at the first week of summer camp was marked by some incredible focus and a whole lot of helping hands. It's awesome to see how this group of kids are developing new relationships and a desire to help each other work toward a common goal. The calm and focused energy they have created in this space continues to drive the design of the Tractor, Chicken Coup and Barn beyond even our collaborators' anticipation.
As project design develops in complexity we encounter more tricky problems and find ourselves asking a lot of questions:
“How do we attach the giant tractor wheels and still have them functional? What is an axle and how does it work?”
“How do we enclose the coop and stop the chickens from flying away? What can we do to prevent their eggs from dropping on the floor and breaking? ”
“How do we support a roof that is designed to rise over twice our height? What is a rafter and how do we brace one?”
These tricky questions required a lot of thinking and tinkering to solve. The kids were prepared with the right mindset and desire to tackle them head on! It's evident that this week campers have more then grasped the fundamentals of Tinkering School. It's not about feeling confident in a shop space and how to build frames and boxes. Here our shop provides a space to practice how extended focus, working together and treating each other with love and respect make it possible to create something big and longer lasting than selected elements of a model farm. But don't just take my word for it, click through the below slideshows and see it for yourself!
Today we focused independently...
We focused in pairs...
We focused in groups...
All without requiring much assistance from our collaborators. Beyond the watching eye and a helpful hand we mostly offered a listening ear and encouraged a can-do attitude.
If you're done clicking through the above galleries and are still looking for more examples of these campers focused and having fun, check out the entire week album here on our Flickr