On tap today, Seneca will sort his new balsa in preparation for a new structure build. He has grand plans for a new design, but can fall back on "old faithful" which consistently holds more than 500 pounds. Throughout the year he has leaned a lot about wood, compression, tension, lap joints, and glue. He is only in 5th grade, so it's been a crash course. Attending a hybrid online public school has lent itself well to spending this extra time learning about balsa structures. Though Seneca has done a little building on the weekends most of his work has been during a regular school day. In fact, to date, the team has never had a meeting on the weekends.
The experience so far hasn't been all roses. The balsa wood is expensive, and Seneca gets really bored with the tedious steps of cutting, gluing, and waiting until the next glue up. It's a constant reminding process to get him back at the table for another step. There may have even been some tears, too. Especially when he glued an almost-complete design to a piece of wood he uses to square the structure. It could not be removed without destroying hours of work. It's a lot to ask of an adult, much less an 11 year old boy who cannot stand still for more than a minute.
It was so worth it you could have seen his joy, as well as the whole team, when they realize how much weight this fragile 15 gram structure can hold.
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