TSO-F Day 2: Fair To Open Friday
Every great build begins with an idea, and every creative building idea comes from the imagination. Tinkerers began their Monday with the theme of a fair set before them. The juniors had three build objectives. Create a fair attraction: 1.) that spins, twirls, or rotates; 2.) that goes down fast; 3) that is a game with a target. Trading ideas led them down a path that would yield creative fair rides with mechanics built to thrill.
“I really want to do a coaster and you really want to do a slide, so here’s my idea,” Fisher said to his teammate, Jake, and he began to elaborate on a scheme to include both.
By the end of the design session, Fisher and Jake’s team had settleD on building a roller coaster track that would incline to a landing platform allowing for the rider to dismount the cart and to continue down another rail or to choose a slide ride to the bottom.
The other junior teams decided to build a zip line with a chair that can twirl 360 degrees and a hanging merry-go-round to be strung from a sturdy tree branch or two.
Senior teams were given the task of completing a preexisting roller coaster rail, developing a mechanism to pull the cart out of the lower bank turn and up the incline, and building a cart to ride along the rail. In addition, some senior Tinkerers added a ticket booth construction project for fair goers.
“Who loves to fail?” collaborator, Julie, asked the teams as the task of completing the rail seemed daunting.
“You have to fail to succeed,” collaborator, Manny, encouraged.
With this encouragement, the senior teams began to build and fail with much more confidence, completing a quarter of the track by shop closing time.
Check out the photo slideshow of Tinkerers during their first build day.