Busy Bugs - Days 1 & 2- Week 2 (SF Day Camp)
Tinkering School Day Camp Week 2 is off to a busy start!
On Monday, we spent an intensive morning learning the ins and outs of clamps, drills, and the chop saw, as well as getting to know each other and envisioning the community we hope to build together this week (no pun intended…).
Each day we also headed to the beach for some play and lunch time. Unbeknownst to our campers, it would soon become clear that the project theme this week would be quite relevant to our daily outdoor lunches!
Imagine… pulling out your food for a lovely beach picnic only to be swarmed by GIANT hungry bugs, looking to steal your food! And thus, the project reveal: this week our incredible tinkerers are designing and building three big Busy Bugs that utilize different movement techniques, in order to steal strategically located “food” objects located around our workshop.
Each design has specific challenges for our tinkering brains to navigate in the build sessions. One group has been innovative in creating a crawling/slithering bug that does not utilize wheels for it’s movement.
Hard at work building the bug’s head. How will it crawl across the floor though?
Another group is working on a “fleahopper” design to discover what hopping mechanisms can be created to launch their bug into the air!
That’s one huge fleahopper!
Testing out some leg joints.
Using a bungee cord like a tendon or ligament…but will it provide enough force to launch the fleahopper into the air?
Lastly, the flying bug group has expertly crafted a rope and pulley system to enable their bug (pincer, wings, and all!) to soar through the air.
On Tuesday we all learned a new word: iteration. Each group reached a point of testing certain mechanisms, discovering what worked well and didn’t, and building a new and improved version. With their strong enthusiasm, this weeks’ tinkering crew is ready to iterate around any challenge that comes their way!
Don’t bug out - be sure to stay tuned for more tinkering fun and lots of photos on our Flickr page! :-)