When initially brainstorming ideas with my group members for what we should do for our Hawken Project, we thought that it was really important to create something that would both have a longlasting positive impact on Hawken and something that involved physical construction. As we are in the midst of a pandemic, many of us (ourselves included) can feel especially stressed, and would just like to relieve our minds somehow. Many of us try to play sports with our friends, but cannot due to COVID-19 regulations. Our project will attempt to remedy this yearning to exercise coupled with COVID-19 restriction to create a safe environment for people to exercise, socialize, and relieve stress. In pursuing this project, we hope to learn about the intricacies of what it takes to organize, construct, and design a recreational complex that fulfills the needs of a community. We expect to have a fully formed 3-D design laying out the outdoor recreational facility and the various components. Furthermore, we feel that Mrs. Zienlinski’s expertise regarding architecture would be invaluable, and would in turn expedite the process of designing and creating a layout for our recreational facility. I have personally had not much experience in construction or even designing outdoor calisthenics equipment without IKEA assembly instructions, and was really drawn to the idea to both creating design schematics and actually constructing the equipment. Going forward into our project, we still have to meet with representatives from the Metroparks to see the general safety guidelines in designing and constructing these structures, get the specific land plots from Hawken, and have yet to learn carpentry skills (we plan on beginning to shadowing this Friday).
Blog 5
After meeting with Mr. Lucas for approval for our project, we were again directed towards Mrs. Dyer, the Hawken Upper School director, for her agreement on the terms of our project. When reversing our presentation, my group members and I forgot to account for the radius of the spikeball net (3ft radius) into the overall serving radius of the spikeball court (9ft), and concluded that it would decrease the serving radius to 6ft. This was a grave mistake on our part, and resulted in us to actually create two separate models, the 9ft radius model and the 12ft radius model, to provide Mrs. Dyer the most options for optimizing spikeball play. As spikeball requires a 6ft serving distance, the 9ft model would force players to sreve at or after the sand pit barrier, and could potentially result in a greater proportion of tripping and injurites. Contrastingly, the 12ft model would provide the player with an ample 3ft distance from the border when serving, and could mitigate the rate at which pla...
Mel, I love the idea for your project, and I can't wait to see Hawken students using the equipment that you and your group will design and build to have fun and relieve stress. That's wonderful that you're going to shadow a carpenter to learn some of the building skills that you'll need, and that Ms. Zielinski will help you with her design expertise. There will be many different people (on and off campus) with whom you should consult as your project progresses, and I look forward to reading about your progress as the weeks pass! Great first blog!
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