New Year Count Down! - Winter Break Day 1
Today was Day 1 of a 3-Day Winter Break Camp here at Tinkering School. This Break Camp is unique because we will have an entirely new group of humans EACH DAY, but the project for all three days is going to remain the same. The folks who showed up on Day 1 were able to lay the foundation of the project -- they designed and started the whole ordeal, only to leave the rest of the week's Tinkerers to learn about and add on to an existing structure throughout the week.
Yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but what are we building?!
Oh, just a New Year Count Down Machine.
So far, the machine is split into two parts: a countdown machine and a streamer launching machine. In the end, (hopefully!) these two parts will connect and communicate and launch New Year streamers all over the building!
But first, tool training!
Everyone was trained on how to operate the chopsaw to safely cut wood into pieces.
We all got a chance to practice this new skill.
Also! We practiced using clamps to make silly structures.
In drill training, we were able to explore the functions of the tool and ask a bunch of questions.
We also practiced attaching pieces of wood together with screws.
After tool training, each team brainstormed designs and ideas for how to build the machines.
And then we had to all figure out how to decide on a design that we would build together.
The launching machine had a particularly long design session, which also included brainstorming ways to effectively talk to one another during the session, ideas for what the machine might look like and also do, as well as a list of things we needed to ask the other team.
Both teams were also able to use the bandsaw for the projects today. Training for this tool is done on an as-needed basis, and it turned out we NEEDED a lot of pieces cut!
By the end of the day, neither team completed the project -- which is totally fine, because it's never a Tinkering School goal to finish -- plus, we have a new group of humans coming tomorrow to pick up where we left off!
Check out all the photos on Flickr!