6th Graders Build a Tinker Room for TCS

Each classroom chooses one or more major group projects to work on during the year. Shortly after our move to our new building last fall, the 6th grade Just Ian class saw an opportunity to create a Tinker Room for the whole school in the basement. A tinker room provides space, tools, and materials for individual and group project work, as well as formal and informal work in science and engineering studies.

The students surveyed the school to find out what others would like to see, and what they thought they might need in the new tinker space. They designed the work areas, and constructed pegboards, and even a work table built around a center support pillar in the room.

Just Ian students wrote: "There is a pillar in the center of the room, and we decided to make use of it. We took the legs off of semi circle tables because they were very wobbly and didn't provide a stable working area. Then we cut into each semi-circle so that they could fit around the pillar to make a standing table, and we eventually decided on taking wood and connecting them to the pillar under and over the two semi-circles."

The entire project turned out to be enormous, with countless details - but the Just Ians prevailed through determination and pride in the fact that their finished work would be a permanent part of TCS.

Once it was built, the class took advantage of the new tinker room in learning new skills - like soldering, sawing, and more. “People are using the space to make things that they want to create, such as popsicle stick bridges with working lights and cork cars, and also a foosball table all from scrap materials," students reported. "The Tinker Room is also being used as a classroom for the science elective which is a very big deal because it means that it is complete enough to be a space where people can be creative, learn, and problem solve.”

Thanks, Just Ian class, for our new Tinker Room!