Today everyone worked on completing a project for tomorrow’s trip to the Pine Barrens. These projects consisted of creating either an abstract or realism sculpture. Some people worked together, others chose to work alone. The students were offered various options on the type of sculpture they could create, or there was the option to design something completely different. The many projects that were made today were: miniature houses to float on water, molds of legs to create a spider tree, a man made of mirrors, a car that would appear to be crashed into a tree, etc. The students worked very hard today and were able to prepare their artwork for what should be a successful day at the Pine Barrens.
Before lunch we held an engineering group exercise in the woodshop room. Everyone was split up into four groups with about four people each. Each team gathered around a 2×4 piece of wood that stretched from one table to another. Each team was given five marshmallows, twelve inches of tape, and a handful of raw spaghetti. We were supplied with an unlimited amount of spaghetti. The objective was build the tallest possible structure on the piece of wood by only using the items they were given. To complete the structure, each group had to try to balance a marshmallow at the very top. It also had to stay standing for at least 5 seconds while being measured. We were given a time limit of 20 minutes to complete the towers. This activity increased our teamwork skills, quick planning and executing abilities, and was a lot of fun.
For the whole day, except for a group exercise, we all worked on projects to either hang or display in the Pine Barrens. One group of students were focused on completing a mirrored silhouette of a person, “mirror man.” This project started two days ago where we cut out a silhouette of a man out of insulation foam. Today we glued shattered glass pieces to the foam so it would create a fragmented reflection and distort the viewer’s self-perception. Breaking mirrors and gluing them in place was a very strenuous process and took nearly the whole day. At the end, when all the pieces were attached, we had to grout the surface. The grouting process consisted of mixing paint and this sand-like material to put in between the gaps of the glass. The process of making the mirror man may have been very tedious, but we made it fun with jokes and bonding. The whole day was fun but also hard working which was our motive from the start.
