Design Challenge: Build a Gate

Design Challenge: Build a Gate

Design Challenge: Build a Gate
Sign that reads: Keep Gate Closed. No matter what the chickens say.

In this design challenge: build a gate we discuss the design, implementation, and constraints of a gate. We will explore all aspects of the gate. We’ll look at pattern, structure, and process to function, locking and hinges.

What Are The Basics?

When we think about gates is the open and close, locking, and unlocking the most important part? Are all gates the same? How are they different?


Take the time to research the words gate and fence. In English they can mean many things! How many definitions of gate and fence are their, even homonyms!


When a gate is closed is it then part of the fence or is it still a gate? Can we have a gate without a fence? Do gates have to close to be considered a gate?

The Challenge

Materials

  • Timer
  • Three Types of Materials (Cardboard, wood, steel)
  • Fasteners (String, Bolts, Pipe Cleaners)
  • A pre-built armature to mount a gate to
  • Duck Tape

Directions

  • Each team will be given a set of materials and a whiteboard
  • The problem is: How do we protect baby ducklings from escaping and getting eaten by hawks?
  • The team will have 10 minutes to brainstorm and start to build.
  • After 10 minutes, all hands go up and the object is COMPLETELY disassembled and then each team switches.
  • They will then have 7 minutes to build their object. After that seven minutes, the hands go up and the team must again disassemble that object.
  • After that 7 minutes, teams switch again and now they will be given 5 minutes to construct this new object. They can be not be talking to or help offered by each team.
  • After 5 minutes, hands go up and we will consider the state of construction.

The team with the most successful builds is the winner of the design challenge. The team with the least successful builds will be asked to give a five minute presentation to the entire camp on why they were unsuccessful and what they plan to do to become better. Remember to use the Design Cycle!

Educational Outcomes

The goal here is teamwork and learning to adapt and modify on the fly.

Given a set set of materials students in each team will have 10 minutes to consider a group of objects and figure out how the items go together. In addition to building they must also observe other teams building to determine the fastest way to build that next item.


Lesson: Using a Rabbit Sling

Lesson: Using a Rabbit Sling

In this Lesson: Using a Rabbit Sling we need to learn quite a few facts about rabbits and the lagomorpha family of animals. Care of rabbits is pretty easy, as they are pretty hardy animals. But they do love to dig and that means they have sharp claws.

The Claws And Panic

Even though these guys are really cute and small, they have strong fear instincts. When you hold an animal like a rabbit, and it does not feel safe, the claws come out. And they are both strong and fast.

I have been cut up by rabbits so many times. I had to learn a few lessons to avoid the terrible, potentially dangerous scratches. These include wearing gloves, long sleeves, and properly using a rabbit sling.

The Rabbit Sling

This device was invented for small pets like cats and little dogs. It keeps them secure and helps them calm down so you can safely treat their claws or a paw wound. It does not work this way with rabbits though.

Rabbits are underground creatures. They live in burrows naturally and travel very close to the ground at all times. They do NOT like to have their paws dangling.

Thus the way the sling was designed to be used is not appropriate for rabbits. You are likely to get even more scratched up and potentially hurt the rabbit if you use it the way it was designed. You need to understand what calms a rabbit down.

Calming a Rabbit

There are two ways to quickly and safely calm a rabbit down. The first is to cover its eyes or restrain its ears back. The second is to expose its belly.

When you place a rabbit on its back, it’s heart beats slower. Also because its eyes are on the side of its head, when it is upside down, they see the ground. This calms them down immediately.

The sling also hangs from the neck.

So the best way to use a rabbit sling is to place the rabbit on its back in the sling. It will not panic. And you can actually hang the rabbit sling around your neck and keep the rabbit close to your body.


Lesson: Animal Health And Safety

Lesson: Animal Health And Safety

Lesson: Animal Health And Safety
Animal and Humans

In this lesson: Animal health and safety we discuss the basic requirements and principles of vet tech and sanitation. Animals and humans have very specific requirements to maintain health and viability. We will discuss the rules and tips and tricks to staying and keeping health and viability.

Students need a basic introduction to pathogens and toxicological realities of working with animals. In this lesson we introduce the realities of animal heath, living condition, wastes, and pathologies. Specific care and management strategies are taught and observed by students to protect BOTH animals and humans.

This lesson is optimized for Mezzacello, as it is an urban farm, but it can work in any environment where humans and animals interact, including at home.

Materials

  • Cages
  • Animals
  • Sanitation Equipment
  • Water Access
  • Gloves
  • Goggles
  • Detailed instruction sets
  • Lab coats

Instructions

  1. Introduce students to the habitation centers for the animals
  2. Highlight features for sanitation, safety, and comfort
  3. Allow students to experience first hand what the realities of animal keeping are
  4. Share with students the five most dangerous pathologies associated with animal/human interaction
  5. Ask students to brainstorm ways to avoid coming in contact with those pathogens
  6. Share their ideas and allow them to come up with creative alternatives
  7. Share the truth and the law
  8. Ask the students to find creative, responsible and safe ways to keep their ideas and their friends and animals safe
  9. Put together a teen-human’s guide to keeping animals
  10. Ask students to take a series of photos demonstrating safe and responsible animal handling practices
  11. Ask students to take a photo in a lab coat looking like what they think a vet would look like

Lesson: Animal Evolution Body Puzzle

Lesson: Animal Evolution Body Puzzle

Lesson: Animal Health and Safety Puzzle
Parts of the Chicken Species

In this lesson: Animal evolution body puzzle students must determine what makes three different species of animals similar and what they share in common. This will be done in teams where each team will be given five minutes to observe an animal species and make five key observations about that animal. Then they will report out and shift to the next.

Systems of Plan and Design

When the rotations are complete, each team will write on the board their observations. Then as a whole the class will identify the most common traits and observations and those that are unique to that animal. This is a great introduction to taxonomy and observation skills tied to real world experience.

It will be useful to refer to the Pattern, Structure Process lesson and the Animal Care and Welfare lesson. These will help to keep the nomenclature and taxonomy of body parts ate front of mind. It will also help the students to start to reframe structures such as wind and paw as extensions of “hand”.

Materials

  • Cages
  • Animals
  • Notepad
  • Pencils or pens
  • White board
  • Dry erase markers
  • Whiteboard microfiber cloth
  • Construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Animal Part Templates (if you want)

Instructions

  1. Assemble three different animal species in cages

    1. The more diverse the species the better
    2. Having the ability to touch the animals is a plus, but not necessary to success
    3. Forbid any observation that is not generalizable
    4. Humans can be one of the animals
    5. Insect species are a crazy alternative, but touching is a plus

  2. Assign students to one of the three animal species
  3. Ask them to make five observations in three minutes (time them)
  4. Rotate them through three times
  5. Reassemble the students to discuss
  6. On a white board label the three species as a row
  7. Have the students list their observations under each heading
  8. Look for similarities between the three species
  9. Identify that species that is most unique
  10. Focus attention on how other species NOT included are similar and why
  11. Allow kids to build a chimera of animals from pieces and parts of other animals
  12. Use the construction paper and scissors to make ridiculous animal constructions
  13. Allow students to create stories about their crazy animal parts

Lesson: Basic Sanitation 101

Lesson: Basic Sanitation 101

Lesson: Basic Sanitation 101
Hand washing and Boots are must

This Lesson: Basic Sanitation 101 is a primer on how we keep humans and animals safe through basic sanitation.

Handwashing 101

At the entrance to each gate, at the greenhouse, and at the porta-john there is a hand washing station. Each station is equipped with water and soap. Make sure your best scientific instruments – your hands – are clean before you begin any experiment.

When conducting sensitive experiments, it is quite easy to infect delicate samples with bacteria from your hands. Especially under a microscope. This is why it is important to use soap and water to remove as much foreign material as possible from your hands.

Bacteria are not our enemy. They are extremely useful and welcome here as they make many magical things happen. But like all living things, sometimes we do not want bacteria at this particular moment, so use caution.

Boot Rinsing 101

Another sanitary issue is your rubber boots or shoe covers. While it is true that we love bacteria at Mezzacello, there are some bacteria that ARE NOT WELCOME! These include Salmonella and Avian Flu Virus.

Salmonella is very dangerous to humans. It comes from the feces of chickens and ducks and from handling raw, unwashed. It spreads very quickly and can pass to your hands if you do not properly sterilize your boots!

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (Avian Flu or Bird Flu) is less common but still a scary reality. HPAI can destroy an entire flock of birds. It can be spread by humans interacting with the feces of other birds.

Avian Flu is not dangerous to humans. It can be spread by humans though. That is why hand washing and boot washing is so very important.

Safety And Hygiene

So maybe you are a very healthy individual. Is there someone in your life that is not? A baby or an aging grandparent?

Bacteria are not evil. They do not seek out victims. But they do want to live and breed.

Be the strong line of defense in other people’s lives. Even if you aren’t afraid of bacteria, remember bacteria are not afraid of you either. To them, you are just a free bus ride!


The Perfect Cover Crop for Unsightly Chain Link Fence

The Perfect Cover Crop for Unsightly Chain Link Fence

How do you hide an unsitely chainlink fence and an emerging urban farm? It turns out we found the Perfect Cover Crop for Unsightly Chain Link Fence! It is a fast growing euonymus specimen called, “Manhattan Euonymus” and chain link fencing!

Building a Perimeter

Mezzacello was a property with some fences but with big missing gaps — Like a toothless insecure smile.

Jim Bruner

When we started building Mezzacello, we first needed to secure Mezzacello. The perimeter is 360 linear feet. The front elevation that fronts North 20th Street came pre-fenced with a wrought iron fence circa sometime in the 20th Century and still highly functional, but we had to be practical.

The west elevation (the back alley) had an existing 36″ high and 70′ long chain link fence from late in the 20th Century. The west fence was missing a 10′ section, probably opening onto a driveway or garage at some point. Mezzacello was a property with some fences but with big missing gaps — Like a toothless insecure smile.

Our immediate problems were that people were driving their cars through the property. Homeless transients were pitching camp on the grounds. Drug addicts were using the bushes for getting high.

Neighbors were walking (and relieving their dog’s waste) randomly through the yard. And most distressing and immediate, we had no security, privacy or safety from the south facing Broad Street elevation.

Many times when we first moved in, we had people brazenly walk from the COTA (The local Bus line in Columbus, OH) bus stop (we called it the party stop) or from the run down “Chips-n-Go” gas station, across the parking lot to the south of the property and right into the yard to ask us for money or some of our food.

If another human soul ever asks me for food, they will get it. That is a baseline of human dignity. But if they ask me for money, they need to accept no, or be willing to work or trade a service and dignity for it.

The strangers walking across our yard (and through our plantings and visits with guests) were too erratic. We needed a barrier. We had a 150′ stretch that needed a fence. And a replacement 10′ span where the back gate once stood.

Wrought With Costs

We soon learned that wrought iron was right out as it would have been too expensive. There was already a span of chain link on the western edge. Chain link it was.

For the past two years, Rick has been trying to conceal the chain link behind a cover of hearty Manhattan Euonymus which he has all been grown entirely from cuttings. He inherited the clippings from our neighbors on Miami Avenue to the west of us, Joshua Snyder-Hill and Steve Snyder-Hill.

This method of propagating Euonymus was taught to us by our neighbor, Ms. Elizabeth Pryor. Sadly, Ms. Elizabeth passed away just last year. She was a great promoter of all things Mezzacello, and a great neighbor.

Propagation and Protection

All the plants at Mezzacello are clones of those initial clippings #AppliedSTEM #Ecology #Sustainability. For the most part it has worked well. Each winter we run into a problem with euonymus dying because the lot attendants of the parking lot just to the south of us choose to pile all the snow onto our fence line and this kills the euonymus in the process.

Rick is seriously considering planting some 6′ steel poles 4′ deep with 2′ sticking out (like you see at Walmart or Target to discourage people from driving their cars into the store front). But the city has rules about who can construct barriers right up on a city right-of-way…

Keep On Plugging

So Rick just keeps plugging cuttings into the ground and I keep occasionally watering and fertilizing them. We do have one problem area. On the southwest corner of the lot, there was apparently a garage and an apron drive that emptied into Avon Alley.

Nothing will grow back there with the exception of vines and scrub weeds. We may have to excavate that driveway at some point. Another project, another time.