Carnival - Week 7-8 - Boys & Girls Clubs - Mission Clubhouse

It’s the final count down to the big night of the carnival! Both teams worked with focus and persistence to have their rides finished in time for everyone to get to try them out and show off their accomplishments to their guests.

Katie and Jasmine made sure to stay safe in the chopsaw room even in the midst of the growing excitement.

Zadrien and Wallace worked as a team to finish attaching the rear supports on the gravitron, while Joshua and David worked together to cut the paneling that covered the supports.

Team work was ESSENTIAL these last weeks to accomplish everything the team wanted to build. Wallace and Zadrien, Joshua and David, and Liana and Joanna all split into pairs and took on a necessary role in this last week. They all persisted through wonderful mistakes and occasional frustrations to finish adding on the needed structural safety bracing for riding the gravitron.

Over on the rocket side, Brendon worked with Ailee and Amanda to finish attaching the rear wall to one of the rockets.

While Narett, Jasmine and Katie added the back paneling on the other rocket. Again both teams split into two groups to accomplish more together.

Then, before we all knew it, the 8th week was upon us and it was Carnival night! We put out the lights, wrote up welcome signs, made tickets and did a last few additions before testing our creations.

Annie and Brendon added the last few screws to the trap door, while Ailee added on a roof.

Annie was a little nervous using the drill, so Brendon offered a partner push.

Jasmine and Yareth worked on adding rocket jets and making fire come out of them.

Joshua and Wallace added pin-wheels while Zadrien and Liana drilled down the ball catching buckets on each seat.

Then finally it was time! As per Tinkering School tradition, the adult collaborators safety tested each ride before the younger tinkerers climbed aboard. First to test were the rockets. Omar and Katie went in first, both with helmets, and…the rockets worked!

Quickly to follow after were the tinkerers themselves.

Then it was time for the gravitron. We went over the safety rules we had agreed to and after a preliminary test for structural safety…we let it rip! While the gravitron spun around, the riders would hold onto the buckets for stability while other kids tried to throw balls into them. All kids (young and old) had a blast!

Super speed!

This session was a total success and everyone accomplished so much! To see all the fun from these past eight weeks check out our Flickr page for more photos!