Air Benders - Days 4-6 - Week 7 (SF Day Camp)

After a fun-filled day of exploration at the beach on Wednesday, we returned to the Palace for more days of hard work and building! Thursday and Friday were full build days, and we made many strides forward on our Airbending projects.

The windmill has taken shape! The outer structure of the tower is completely finished and ready to be sheathed with plywood layers. Furthermore, smaller subgroups have splintered off to do intensive work on creating propellers for the windmill. Hopefully by Tuesday afternoon we will be in testing mode, taking propellers outside to see how they engage with the real-life wind!

It is taking a lot of collective brainpower for our tinkerers to puzzle out the gliders. Although a very solid launcher is on it’s way to completion, it has proven difficult to design and create gliders which can soar through the air after being launched. The challenge offered by this project may have to include re-thinking our ideas of gliders, what we can feasibly launch, and how we can harness the power of the wind with what we are building out of wood, screws, PVC pipe, and plastic.

On Monday, after returning from the weekend, we continued to build in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day outdoors completing 2-hr build challenges on the beach :)

One of our wind-car groups took this opportunity to test the functionality of their car! We wheeled the car outside and found a long strip of concrete to perform test rides. Ultimately, the group realized their sail is not big enough to allow the car to be fully propelled by wind. We are beginning to brainstorm a new sail design.

Some tinkerers took on the challenge of creating new gliders and kites, while others delved into sand-building. We were offered the challenge of building the biggest sand-towers, and digging the longest channels from the ocean up to the beach.

Having time outside on such a beautiful day rejuvenated us and left us ready and eager to get back to project-building tomorrow morning!

For today’s photos, check out our Flickr page!