Yellow Band: By Land, Weeks 2 & 3

These past two weeks have been jam packed! Between field trips, projects, and assessment meetings, we've been so busy.After we finished moving Gever's rock, we started to study the US Postal Service, because they move massive numbers of things every day. I had this crazy idea that after moving something massive, we should move a massive number of things--like I said, crank the scale WAY UP.So, I asked Karen--Jack's mom, and Tinkering School Manager--if she could pick us up 1,000 takeout boxes.[embed]https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfbrightworks/30804486582/in/album-72157675874213166/[/embed]"Piper, this is ridculous!" proclaimed the Yellow Banders, as they gleefully folded box after box, taking on the jobs of folder, tosser, double and pile pusher. I know it's ridiculous, that's part of what made it work!We started by watching a bit of a short documentary on the Postal Service, then got to work folding the boxes. As we folded more and more, I heard many kiddos discussing possible strategies for moving them. Maybe we could fill up the wagon, and bring the wagon all the way back and forth between the Beehive and the Orchard. Maybe each of us should carry armfuls to the Orchard, then come back to the Beehive for more. But, as the days passed and the pile grew, it became clear that this was not a viable plan. When we got to the part in the documentary about the Pony Express, the light switch flipped.It became clear that we needed to break up the distance with relays, just like the riders on the Pony Express. One person would pick up some boxes and take them a certain distance, then pass them on to the next 'rider.' This 'rider' would take the boxes a bit farther, then pass them off to the last 'rider,' who would run the last few feet and drop the box off on the deck. Donezo Washington![embed]https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfbrightworks/25288245749/in/album-72157675874213166/[/embed]I can't believe how much fun we had doing this! Plus, we've started to dive deep into the brief but captivating history of the Pony Express, with lots of interesting morning math vitamins along the way.Oh, and our afternoon projects have been awesome too! With a small group of Red and Yellow banders, I'm helping build what is basically a block and tackle (sshh, don't tell them that!). It helps that I've never made one before, so we get to research, tinker, and discover our way through the process together. As you may remember from our last post, we started by building a frame, then mounting the pulleys to the frame. Then, we started to experiment, trying to balance a drill on one side with something lighter on the other end of the rope.There was something we were missing though, so we went back and did a bit more research, learning that the mistake we made was to attach all of the pulleys to the frame. Armed with this knowledge, we went back to our design and made some changes, tinkering as we went. We'd need to fix the rope to the frame so that it would act almost like an extra person to help carry the weight. Then, figure out how to use the pulleys if not all of them are fixed in place, but rather have some that are movable so that the weight gets distributed among many lengths of rope.Next week, we'll figure out how to add a harness (and maybe need to build a bigger frame too)  so that a Beehive kiddo can lift another Beehive kiddo! Using wheels!