We have made it to day 2!  It was an incredibly busy day.  We have been laboring over designs and attempting to calculate the materials needs, as well as the costs.  Below are some photos of just a fraction of the thinking/designing we have started.  It is really neat to see visually how the kids think and calculate their work.  Just asking them to explain their work is a hoot because you can follow along their path and reasoning.

Additionally, we have started to inventory all of the wood we have vs. what we need.  It is amazing how long it takes for us to take something out, measure it, label it, organize it, and start over again.  The good news though is that we found about 1/4 of the supplies we needed in the Makerspace.  The more we find, the more money we save (each group has a budget and they are getting thrifty when it comes to how they spend it).

We started our Sukkah project yesterday (actually, picked up from May/June of last year).  What a start it has been!  Each student was placed into a wall group (we have 3 or 4 walls, depending on who you ask).  From there, they had to figure out the number of studs (boards) for their wall (don’t worry, they are aware of the building code in Wisconsin and know studs need to be 16 inches on center…they all know this).  After figuring out the number of studs, they had to price them out, making sure to stay under their budget for each wall ($150 each wall).  In addition to their wall, they had to figure out how to afford decorations, how to build a roof, and what to cover their walls with afterward.

It was great seeing the students working together (collaboration) and thinking outside the box (creativity) to solve their problem.  Eventually we will get some photos up and running, once we start a bit more of the building process.

Be sure to check out the student’s blogs because they uploaded their first reflection this morning!