TSO-A-Day 1: Tool Training Time

Tinkerers arrived for their first day of Tinkering School Overnight (TSO) camp at UC Elkus Ranch Sunday, June 23. Some are veterans excitedly returning for another year of tinkering, while some are embarking on their first experience.

“It’s the first time I get to do something I want to do without being told, ‘No,’” Luke, a first-time Tinkerer (but long-time avid drawer and builder) said as he and his father, Norm, wait for the senior session to begin.

Rhody, a collaborator, gives Maddy the ready sign to use the chop saw safely while Maddy’s teammates wait for their turn.

Luke, 13, like others, said he was surprised when learning about Tinkering’s overnight camp which he and his father learned about after watching a TED Talk featuring the program. Luke, who said he finishes his school assignments early so he can work on building and drawing projects, has become dissatisfied with the structure of a traditional learning environment where supplies are limited.

For Norm, Luke’s father, the possibilities of the Tinkering program seemed like a good thing.

“He’s always building things. When we saw it, we thought it would be a good thing for him,” and added that learning to use power tools at Luke’s age would be great fun for him.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Luke said and listed the saw as one of the tools he is eager to learn to use.

While students in Luke’s group wait with their parents, the juniors gather in a circle together to meet and greet each other, sharing their names and spirit tools, and followed by a walk up the hill to the build site where they meet for tool training.

“Are we going to that station next,” Gabriel, a junior, asks while pointing to the chop saw with one hand. “You can see why I’m excited,” he adds.

In another group, Tinkerers play with various clamps, trying to construct a chair or stool that is structurally sound enough to sit on.

Miriam tests her team’s chair while Angelo cheers their success.

“I have an idea,” Miriam, a junior, says as her tinkerer’s mind unleashes a solution for this tool training challenge. She then uses metal clamps of similar height as the legs of the chair instead of the traditional wood, demonstrating a creative solution to a well-used learning exercise.

Another team builds a short chair in a more traditional approach by using four wood legs and a seat. RJ says it’s going to be a really short chair, but his team isn’t daunted.

“That’s okay. It can be a chair for a small cat,” Charlie says, “or a 5-year-old,” he adds.

Along with tool training, all Tinkerers are given a tour of the build sites while being informed of the possible natural hazards that one might encounter along the trail. First, beware of the poison oak, but also the stinging nettles and the poisonous hemlock, Kevin, a collaborator instructs as she points to the varying flora along the path.

Kyle, in between shock and laughter, spits out a small bit of poisonous hemlock plant leaf which he mistook as fennel while his teammate, Sebbie, laughs.

As the younger Tinkerers make their way back to the yurt village, the seniors who have also undergone tool training, close out their session with a group challenge. One soon-to-be blind-folded Tinkerer per each team peeks at a previously roughly-made stick figure of scrap wood and screws before returning to their teammates to describe what to build without being able to see the work in progress.

Luke, Zachary, Henry and Lars try to build a project according to Zachary’s instruction.

“It’s not nostrils, it’s his eyes,” one Tinkerer exclaims.

“I don’t care if the screws are in all the way! I’m sorry. I’m Gordon Ramsey; I like lamb chops,” another Tinkerer states.

“I’m assuming it’s good because I gave good instructions,” another says.

“What exactly were we trying to make,” yet another says, demonstrating that ideas and the finish can be interpreted differently by each Tinkerer.

As the day winds down, and all Tinkerers have finished dinner, Sam, the camp site captain, closes with the reveal of this week’s camp project.

“When I looked out across the new build site, I saw sloping hills, looking over our yurt village with our little patch of turf, and I imagined how cool it would be to have an epic mini golf course,” Sam says adding that this golf course can be used by Friday if finished in time.

With the excitement of a Tinkerer’s imagination of the “golfstacle,” Sam adds, “It doesn’t even need golf balls, it can have big balls or no balls at all.”

Click below to see more photos of Tool Training Time.