Welcome to the last week of the 2016 Tinkering School overnight season! It's been a wild summer, and we're closing it out with an all-ages session. We have a whole range, from 8 to 14, new tinkerers to five-year vets. Like all Sundays, after the arrivals, we circle up to introduce ourselves. Gever leads us through binary statements ("I like cats better than dogs;" "I like broccoli;" "My name has more than two vowels in it") and announcing our spirit tools.

And a quick run-through of our three basic rules, though we do them a bit out of order this week.

Then it's time to do tool training. Our main tools are clamps, drills, and the chop saw, and this is our opportunity to go over the basics for our new tinkerers, and some of the finer details with our returning campers. Collaborator Rhody goes over the "silent thumbs-up" ready call for chop saw use.

We just love seeing the sunset in our workshop. Gretchen calls to her group: "Ready?"

Rayan makes his first cut.

Collaborator Caroline goes over the various uses of the drills while Thalia breaks the fourth wall.

Dalia takes her knowledge over to Gever to practice drills with Sophia and Lucy.

Lilah learns the strengths and limitations of clamps.

We gather up for dinner, and discuss whether it's more important for pancakes or waffles to exist in the universe. After a bit of free time, we get together for a very different challenge. The collaborators have come up with a strange game that requires communication, teamwork, and trust.

Groups of three must verbally navigate a blindfolded teammate to retrieve a specific crumpled up ball of paper. The tricky thing is, all the groups are trying to do the same thing at once.

It turns out to be an exceptionally hilarious level of insanity.

Which crumpled ball? Not that one? The other one? Okay!!

The night ends with a celebration for Bradon, who is celebrating his 12th birthday today! He picks the first of the ice cream sandwiches that Rhody made for us.

A hush falls over us as we devour the delicious desserts.

Rayan's mind is flooded with the scrumptious tastes.

"Do I have something on my face?"

Caspar asks, "Weren't we going to build something tonight?" A collaborator responds, "Yeah, we built FRIENDSHIPS." Caspar is less than enthused by this statement, despite the veracity of it.

Alex plays the ukulele for us as we finish up our cookies.

With full tummies and quiet voices, we take a foggy nighttime ride up to the tents and settle in for our first night. Tomorrow we get to talk about our project for the week!

Blog by Caroline, with editing and company by Jack.

Session H: Day 1 - Organized Chaos