Mission to Mars! - Day 1 - Mark Day School

Dun......dun...dun...! da da! With the 2001 space odyssey theme playing in the background, our new crew of tinkerers discovered that we'll be traveling to mars to visit a martian colony! 

Before we jumped into building our spaceship though,  we discussed some important tinkering school goals that we'll try to meet this week. After just one day, these dedicated tinkerers have already shown that they are up to the challenge of trying harder than usual, making mistakes and learning from them, collaborating with each other, and making something WAY bigger than ourselves. 

We also came up with some group agreements of how we want to treat each other and stay safe in the workshop.

And then it was time to learn how to use some tools!

Clamps are essential - even when building in outer space!

Everyone gained a healthy respect for the "blood bubble" when using the chop saw. (The zone that all fingers, hands, and other extremities must stay away from.) 

And we had time to practice drilling and screwing. We'll be doing a LOT of drilling this week. By Friday, these tinkerers will be seasoned pros!

After some grub and play time at the park, we jumped into designing our spaceship and martian colony. So many awesome ideas! The martians seem to like elevated mono-rails and the spaceship is gonna be BIG...stay tuned to see how they develop!

With our plans under our belts, we jumped straight away into building. And these tinkerers are quick! - they got a ton done - even in a shortened afternoon build session. Can't wait to see what they come up with a full day of building tomorrow! 

We'll be blasting off in no time to meet our martian buddies!

To check out all the photos from the day, visit our Flickr page!