Under the Sea, Day 4, Week 2, SF

I think the name of the game today was precision. And in order to be precise, we had to work really really slowly. Because, people tend to make mistakes when they work too quickly. I know one of our goals is to make mistakes and learn from them, but there are the mistakes where you really thought something would work, and then there are the mistakes where you tried to get something done quickly. 

Justine and Julia carefully trace one of their flippers before transferring the shape onto a sheet of thin plywood. 

We've had so much excitement around the projects this week, that sometimes we've struggled to encourage these tinkerers to slow down a bit, work with a steady pace so they have time to listen to their teammates and anticipate mistakes. Which is kind of a good problem to have: these kids really feel ownership of their projects, and are super enthusiastic about working on them together. 

Manny human clamps a few pieces of wood together so that Santi and Jacob can drill holes and drive in screws. Since this side of the submarine is supposed have a door, these sections of wall were hanging out in space, making them pretty tricky to work on. 

But, when we work too fast, we lose sight of our actual goals. We can get caught up in the excitement of finishing the project, instead of relishing the opportunity to work with this unique group of humans. And, not only will we have to maybe take things apart and try again, or cut something at the wrong length or angle, we might also not hear the idea of our teammate, or notice when another group makes a breakthrough. And those are the real tragedies. 

John helps Trevor install the first version of the drill powered propeller. 

So, today, we asked the campers this morning to try to work slowly, taking breaks to listen to their teammates or walk around the space to check out the progress made on other projects. And some amazing things happened. 

Ethan and Isla found the perfect piece of plywood to cover the floor boards so that folks can comfortably walk through the coral reef. 

Then, with Juny and Nikki's help, they cut it to exactly the right size and shape on the bandsaw. 

After carefully tracing the shape of the flippers, folks on the sea turtle team spent much of the afternoon cutting out pieces of thin plywood to cover the frames. Here, Daria drills a big hole to drop the jigsaw blade into. 

Julia helped too! 

Minjae, Nikki and Varit carefully cut plywood for the seat of the second bench. Building number 2 of a thing always goes so much faster than building number 1! 

Harrison, Ryan and Audrey carefully measure sections of fabric for the turtle's shell. Also, the turtle team successfully removed the support beams from the shell and now the dome stands up on its own! 

And tomorrow is already Friday! This week has flown by, as usual. Check back tomorrow to see us floating around under the sea.