Build Week 15 Takes Off
It was 9am on Monday of Build Week 15, and learners were already saddling up to head for the park – not yet sure what they’d be making across the week. When they arrived at the park, teachers handed each team two model gliders: one larger one made of foam and one smaller made of balsa wood. Then, equipped with a clipboard, three strings of varying lengths, basic information about gliders and two blank data tables, teams set off to run three test flights on each glider, measuring the distance of each trial and observing the differences in the designs of the gliders. By then, they’d gotten the picture: this week, they’d be designing for flight.
The “bird’s-eye-view” of our plan for the week might be helpful for readers:
Teams design, build, and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Teams walk themselves through the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to drafting, including team-driven research (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints, and concluding with a final launch day/competition.
On Monday afternoon, Tuesday, and Wednesday, teams worked to create blueprints and detailed material lists, then to have them scrutinized and (eventually) approved by the Department of Aeronautical Review, headed by Ms. Winchester, lead architect of this fabulous week. Throughout the days, rooms periodically erupted in applause as teams returned victoriously with their sheets of balsa wood or foam core in hand, once they’d had their final blueprints accepted. But in the meantime, everyone had to address one of the essential questions involved in collaborative making: how do we stay productive amid all the waiting of a build process? Waiting for tools, waiting for blueprint approval, waiting for space in the cutting zone, waiting to use the test launcher… there’s a lot of time to fill in the course of an authentic project.
Another challenge of this build week was the risk inherent in the tools we needed – exact-o-knives, box cutters and hobby saws. All the while, safety gurus cycled through the rooms, wearing sashes of caution tape. “Don’t forget your glasses and your gloves!” and “Cut AWAY from your body!” were phrases that we all heard countless times.
On Wednesday morning, all the teams in one room circled up for a status update. One group was about to present their blueprint to the Aeronautical Review board. Others who had already had their plans approved offered advice. “Be sure you know exactly which materials you want to request, with dimensions. Have a good list,” said a learner. “Just know you may get sent back to the drawing board to revise,” said Hieu with a grin. “I think most of us have had to go in multiple times.” “And be confident in your design,” added Gwynnie.
By Wednesday afternoon, intensive revision was the theme. Most teams had test-launched their initial models and come up with plans to improve them. Teams stripped away wooden fuselages to replace them with foam and re-drew – and re-cut – wing shapes. Outside on the test launcher, planes leaped and fell again and again. Inside, the floors were littered with a fine dust of wood and foam.
Even on Thursday morning, this work continued, as teams disassembled and reconfigured their gliders for the final launch contest. The walk over to the launch site (with a stop at Kingsbury Commons for lunch and a bit of play) would begin in less than two hours. “We’re done, but we’re just making some extra parts,” said Dillon as he sawed and sanded. As Jules reattached a new, lighter fuselage an hour before departure time, she reflected that “my learning experience was: don’t take too much time making something pretty and elegant and then have no time to test it.”
After a warm, early-summer walk through the park and nourishment from the lunches we carried from Long-View, we were ready for the launching competition to begin on the Great Lawn. After all of this work, would our gilders indeed stay in the air and/or go the distance? We were about to find out. Two stations were set with a pair of judges standing by each. Distance markers (made this morning by learners) were stationed at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 20 meters, with an aspirational 50 meter marker at the far end of the course. And the crowd of learners was cheering as a lively soundtrack played from a small, but surprisingly loud, speaker in Juliet’s hand.
On the wide green field all afternoon, planes soared and fell, perhaps more quickly than some teams had hoped, but that’s the beauty of a Build Week: we get to test our efforts in a context that is performative, but also supportive and fun. There were some thrilling flights, like that of Everett and Dillon’s glider, which traveled 14.9 meters and stayed aloft for 1.9 seconds, eliciting squeals of delight from the crowd. As Dr. Flider shook bronze, silver, and gold cans of spray-paint to adorn the planes that received awards for longest distance traveled and time in the air, the whole community looked on with satisfaction as another great Build Week cruised in for a landing.
*For more photos, check out our Instagram Highlight: Build Week 15.
