The Cantilever Bridge challenge

Holden, Hannah, Elianna, and Annabel had to use blocks to span a distance and create a bridge strong enough to support a bottle of water. 

The blocks were uniform in size and were about a fourth of the distance needed to be covered.  

They quickly figured out how to balance the blocks to get them to stretch across the distance.  

Challenge met!

The Beam Bridge challenge

Eden, Sam, Acadia, and Nola had to build a Y-bridge of a certain distance that supported their weight as they walked on it. 

Acadia shows us the last section to be built. 

Sam looks at the last section to consider its strength. 

Acadia starts a second run after part of the bridge collapsed on the first run. 

Acadia successfully passed the weakest part at the Y section. 

Acadia finishes and the challenge is met!

Campers design rooms for elderly people

In preparation for visiting the Marcus Ward Home, now Winchester Gardens, the arch-campers designed rooms for elderly people or people with special needs. 

Caius opted for slanted rooms to freshen the feel of the typical rectangular shape of institutions. 

Visit to Winchester Gardens

 

Arch-campers went to Winchester Gardens to see landscape architecture as well as how living space is designed to meet the needs of the resident. 

Ms. Grant met us and showed us the original main building and original rooms built by Marcus Ward for "bachelors and retirees" in 1924. Ms.Grant also explained how the original rooms were changed over time to meet more of the Needs of the residents, such as larger rooms and removing sills in bathrooms that could be tripped over. Before the visit campers designed their own rooms for the elderly and after the visit changed some plans based on what they saw. 

On the grounds we noticed how Fredrick Law Olmstead, who designed the grounds, created varied spaces outside, such as vistas for looking at from bedroom windows and a quiet path that runs through a wooded area that now us adjacent to the Maplewood pool. 

Designing treehouses

Architect-campers are designing treehouses for themselves and will be making models throughout the week. 

In these two pictures Sam gives us a side  view (elevation) and a top view (floor plan) so you can see the triangle relation of the rooms. 

Selfie time at the pool

Constructing trusses for a bridge contest

The camper-architects had to glue together matchstick trusses for the next bridge assignment:  to see how much weight they can support. 

Nola's glue bubble. 

Suspension bridges

We learned about beam bridges and suspensions bridges. 

Here Elianna and Nathan work on adjusting their paperclip suspension chains. 

Nola and Acadia check the balance of their bridge. 

Eden and Sam proudly display their work. Eden thoughtfully suggested to count the number of clips for exact measuring. 

Caius  and Annabel successfully dealt with an extra wide board which made the suspension harder to secure.  Well done!  

Architecture week begins!

First designs