Learning to Build

This is a post I meant to write last winter, and never got around to it. The Kid participated in Destination Imagination last year, and will be participating again this year. It's an amazing program and I highly recommend that you look into it!

For last year's challenge, the team had to learn how to construct a very lightweight structure out of limited materials. It had to bear weight. A lot of weight. Where to start with such an undertaking and a group of 7-8 year olds? Popsicle sticks, of course!

This part of the project could easily be done by anyone. The challenge I first issued to the team was to build a structure out of no more than 50 craft sticks that could withstand weight being placed on top. (For their purposes, we dropped Olympic weights on top. That takes a structure tester to do safely, and that also makes it less tenable for an at-home project.) The structures they built used only craft sticks and glue, had to have an open center, and stand at least the height of one craft stick. Once they could manage a basic structure, we moved on to competing to see who could make the lightest weight structure that still held significant weight.

I was amazed at the construction skills this taught. They had to start with which glues held best. We bought a whole pile of glue, glued together pieces of wood, and then broke them apart to see how much force it took, and whether the glue broke or the wood broke. They experimented with how much glue made for a good joint. They played with clamping vs not clamping the pieces together. They experimented with jigs. They learned how to use cutting tools. They learned about angles and cross bracing. They learned about types of woods, and how much they weighed.

And that was just one part of their challenge. I can't wait to see what next year brings!

There's the box, under the giant stack of books!