Playground for a, Day 3, SF, Week 6
Wednesday here in SF, and these girls really hit the gas today. We learned some best practices for building with plywood, which sometimes meant making some improvements to our work from the previous days. That was a-ok with everyone though, because today we focused on trying extra hard, even when things were challenging. We also got to learn a few new tools, practicing more with the bandsaw and drill press.
Ceili started the day with the croc-o-slide team by talking about some building basics: plywood platforms should always have a 2x3 base.
Violet helps demonstrate that with 3 particular 2x3s, you can only make one triangle, while with 4 2x3s, we could change the angles of the four-sided shape infinitely. This was important in order for us to understand the way that plywood is strong, compared to the way that boards are strong.
Mika, Jana and Lia got straight to work updating the climbing wall that leads up to the croc-o-slide with this new information. Then realized that they would need to build a frame to support the climbing wall from behind, kind of like a floor.
While Mika and Lia worked on the frame, Lia double checked the backside of the climbing wall for comrades dangerous (you know, those pesky screws that stick out the other side, just waiting to scratch you).
Sarai got right back to work finishing drilling the holes to run rope through for the railing of the platform. Plus, she showed Nina!
After a great demonstration and explanation from Sarai, Nina tried her hand at the drill press too--great jig setup Nina!
Over on the crabby bars team, it was full steam ahead--until they made a few mistakes! It's ok though, we knew that was going to happen eventually. Everybody kept such a positive attitude, and was immediately ready for take two (or three or four!).
Meanwhile, the crabby bars team got to work getting their bars up in the air. At first, they went straight to attaching the legs to raise the bars. But, when they stood them up, they realized that attached them at the wrong angle! They had attached the legs as if the crabby bars are level, which of course they're not! Back to the drawing board they went!
Then, the group got started building a frame flat on the floor. But, when they stood them up, they realized that they used two different lengths of wood for the tall side of the crabby bars--woops!
Oh grrl, that fly wall is looking super cool! With their wall largely built, the team worked on adding some safety features, and starting to tinker with how they'll actually climb it.
Meanwhile, tons of interesting stuff was happening over in the flywall group. Sareena got to work on designing and prototyping some wrist and ankle bands that can be used to climb the velcro on the flywall.
And Katerina and Myla kept safety checking and adding supports to the wall itself, until they could tell that it was definitely safe to try climbing!
And so that's what Ever did! It looks like climbing this wall may take some practice!
Make sure to check the flickr for more pictures of everyone trying super hard!