Jungle Adventure! - Day 3 - Week 1 (Mark Day School)
W is for Wednesday. W is for Wow. Wow, these tinkerers impressed us today with their hard work. What wonderful creations we are bringing to life… from a mysterious creature with multiple eyes and jagged teeth to an airplane ride on a rollercoaster track to a beautiful strong bridge, we are firing on all cylinders! That’s what happens when all of us are working as a team (often in small teams) to measure, cut and connect wood.
And yet, we remind ourselves that “finishing the project” is not one of our goals this week. We want to finish the project and we plan to finish the project but our goals remain dedicated to furthering the experience for everyone. We build best when we build together. During our closing circle, we heard from many tinkerers who shared a quick moment about a mistake they had made (and learned from), about a way they had helped someone else, or about a way they had tried even harden they usual.
During our morning circle, Jayson introduced the concept of structural reinforcement. Which shape do we want to use when building? Triangles! How do forces travel from a support beam or roof down to the ground? What is the difference between a compression force and a sheer force? These are important questions because the answers are sometimes the difference between a structure that can hold thousands of pounds and one that can’t. Jayson also demonstrated how more screws in a piece of wood isn’t always desirable. It was memorable to hear a piece of wood splinter when weakened by so many screws splitting the wood fibers!
There are many moments during a day that make me smile — a kid using a jig saw for the first time, deliberately and so focused, a kid holding a piece of wood so another can drill pilot holes and then seeing them switch and take turns — but my favorite moment today came during lunch at the park. We’ve been taking tinkerers to a nearby park for lunch for several years now. Last year, we noticed that a wooden bench at the park was broken. One of the wooden beams had fallen off. We meant to fix it but never remembered to bring the right set of tools and materials with us at lunch. Fast forward to today and several of our tinkerers took it upon themselves to repair the bench. They consulted with Jayson about the best way to re-attach the missing piece and skillfully drove a screw and washer from underneath to connect both side of the beam to the metal brackets. As we were leaving the park, I noticed someone painting the picnic tables. He works with Parks & Rec so I mentioned that our campers had fixed the bench. He smiled and nodded. I explained that a 9 year-old girl had driven screws and washers into the beam which was offset from the original pilot holes to avoid having the screws fall out. He seemed a little stunned and asked me questions about it. I told him we have a tinkering camp and we just noticed a problem we could fix. He was quite happy and said to thank our tinkerers and thank them for the whole city of San Rafael. I’ve noticed for myself, for my fellow collaborators, and for our young tinkerers, this experience gives us a slightly different perspective on the world. One where we can make a small improvement to our environment just by noticing and by using skills we’ve learned and practiced.
Check out our gallery below for even more photos from today!
