Wednesday was our last day of air bending, and we truly made the most of it!

This unique 8-day Tinkering Day Camp experience allowed us to delve deep into our theme. It has been a privilege to witness the creative and innovative ways this group of tinkerers engaged with the concept of manipulating the natural elements for our usage. We all explored ways of harnessing the power of the wind to move mechanisms made of wood, screws, PVC pipe, and plastic!

Our last build session was on Wednesday morning, where we had the opportunity to make last adjustments and do safety checks before the impending showcase where we would shuttle our projects to Chrissy Field to test our projects in the real-life wind, and show friends and family what we’ve been working on for the past 8 days.

The launcher and glider project spent the morning test launching the two glider designs we created, as well as experimenting with attaching parachutes to the gliders to enable them to float even further than they were able to fly.

Across the workshop, those tinkerers working on the “Cheap Jeep” finished the final iteration of their sail – after playing with and testing numerous different designs, by the end of the week they came up with the one that worked! They finished it in the nick of time.

After our regular beach and lunch time, we came back to the workshop for showtime. In teams, we moved our bigger-than-ourselves projects across three crosswalks and across Chrissy Field to set up. We brought a handful of drills and supplies, and once there were able to tinker with last-minute adjustments and stabilizing the projects for their outdoor tests.

The “Tesla” wheel broke off on the drive to Chrissy Field, and required last minute fixing

Finally, families showed up to view our projects. We all sat together for one last Closing Circle, to reflect on what we had accomplished and learned, as well as ways we collaborated well and exciting developments from throughout this week.

Tinkerers took turns riding the two sail-cars, while many of us observed the functioning of our awesome windmill. The launcher team showcased each different glider in flight.

After a fun time of appreciation and fun, we walked the projects back to the Palace of Fine Arts and all participated in the deconstruction of our projects.

Needless to say, it was a wonderful day and an incredible culmination of all of our hard work.

To check out the rest of today’s photos and videos, look at our Flickr page!

Air Benders - Day 8 - Week 7 (SF Day Camp)