Yasin’s Reader’s Nook

Project Introduction

Acknowledgements

I want to thank these vendors for their generous contributions to my project:

Home Depot
Lowe’s
Russell Gardens Wholesale
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I also want to thank these businesses for sponsoring my chairs:

C Change Associates
Visionstream
Yoga Herbs
 
For my Eagle project, I am building an outdoor “Reader’s Nook” at the Princeton Montessori School.  The objective is to give the students and teachers a quiet and peaceful outdoor sanctuary to read a book or to have small meetings.  The Reader’s Nook will consist of 4 Adirondack Chairs, 2 tables and a small garden.  It will also introduce an interesting piece of American history and beautify the middle school grounds.
 

 Gardening Session

Thursday Jun 6, 2013


I met with my school contact, Mrs. Thompson to finalize the location of my project and picked an area near the entrance of the middle school. Later, Mrs. Senior visited the site and advised me on the planting pattern and helped me to finalize the plant selections of suitable plants – preferably ones that attract butterflies. That day she was on her way to Russell Gardens Wholesale and she picked up the plants during the trip. The nursery made a generous discount to support my project and I followed up by posting a Thank You Note on their website. The same evening, I went with my dad to Home Depot and picked up some top soil and mulch and gathered shovels and rakes from our garage to take to the school.

The planting was on Thursday Jun 6 during recess. My middle school friends helped me with the planting. We planted the plants in pre-selected spots. Using the EDGE method (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide and Enable), I first explained how deep and wide the holes had to be. Then I dug a hole and planted a flowering plant. I guided the students with small corrections while they planted. Soon they were able to do it on their own, without any further assistance. After school, I returned with another student to cover the area with mulch and to clean up.

The following week, I returned to the site to install a porous watering hose around the plants.

 
 
 Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Bought materials, tools and supplies at Home Depot; trained students to dig holes and plant flowering plants and bushes; spread soil and covered with mulch; put down porous watering hose and cleaned up location 3
 Uttam  Dug holes, planted plants, spread mulch and helped clean up location  2
 Chris  Dug holes and planted plants  1
 Charles  Dug holes and planted plants  1
 Hunter  Dug holes and planted plants  1
 Dylan  Dug holes, planted plants and took pictures  1
 Mrs. Thomson  Gave location advice and watering instructions   0.5
 Mrs. Senior Advised on suitable plants and care instructions; procured plants from Russell Garden Wholesale   1.5

Total Hours: 11.0

  

Woodworking Sessions
Tracing, Cutting, Sanding and Inventory Phases
Session 1 – Saturday June 8, 2013
 

During the first session, we went out in Mr. Reed’s truck to buy materials and supplies to build the chairs and tables.  We bought cedar boards at Lowe’s and supplies at Home Depot – both vendors offered generous discounts to support my project.  We then went to Mr. Reed’s workshop and started preliminary cutting for the table legs. To make the legs sturdy, we glued and nailed two pieces together and put them in a clamp to cure for a few days.  We also reviewed the chair design templates to plan out how we are going to trace the designs to the boards in the next session.

 
 Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Prepared materials and supplies list, selected lumber, loaded the truck with other scouts, gave safety briefing, assisted Mr. Reed in cutting the wood and worked with scouts to glue the table legs  4
 Akil Helped build and clamp chair legs  1
 Sidhant Helped buy materials and supplies, and load the truck  2.5
 Mr. Reed Drove scouts to the stores, helped select the lumber, went over building plans, cut and nailed the table legs.  4
 Mr. Ahmed Provided adult supervision and took pictures.  4

Total Hours: 15.5

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


  

 
Session 2 – Saturday June 15, 2013
 
This week we did much of the sanding needed on the frame of the tables. We cut and sanded all of the pieces that we needed for both tables. We took the glued legs and sanded away excess glue and made sure that none of the pieces had sharp edges. Paul also worked on tracing the design templates for the chairs. We then glued the pieces together and nailed them to make sure that they are sturdy. We had finished the frame so all we have to do next week is sand and attach the top slats.

 Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Gave safety briefing, used EDGE method to show how to sand, worked with scouts in sanding, assisted Mr. Reed in cutting the wood and used EDGE to show how to glue. 3
 Elian  Helped sand and glue the wood   1.5
 Paul  Helped sand, glue the wood and trace the designs   3
 Alexandre  Helped sand and glue the wood  3
 Mr. Reed  Cut the wood, nailed the wood together and provided adult supervision  3
 Mr. Ahmed  Provided adult supervision and took pictures  3
 Mr. Rubin  Provided adult supervision and took pictures  1.5
 Mrs. Senior, Eagle Advisor  Provided adult supervision and project review  .5

Total Hours: 18.5

   

Session 3 – Sat Jun 22, 2013

During today’s session we finished sanding the top slats for the tables and attached them to the frame. That meant we had completed the tables. We continued tracing the designs for the chairs and cut out the designs. We were sanding the pieces as they were traced and cut. By the end of the session the back slats and leg pieces were cut and sanded.
 Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Gave safety briefing, used EDGE method to show how to sand, worked with scouts on sanding and assisted Mr. Reed in cutting the wood. 3
Ashwin  Helped sand and glue table  slats and sand chair pieces  3
Jackson  Helped sand and glue table  slats, sand chair pieces and trace designs  3
 Nick  Helped sand and glue table  slats, sand chair pieces and trace designs  3
 Mr. Reed  Nailed in table slats, cut out the chair pieces and provided adult supervision  3
 Mr. Ahmed  Provided adult supervision and took pictures  3

Total Hours: 18.0



 
 

Session 4 – Sun Jun 23, 2013
During today’s session we finished tracing the pieces needed for two of the chairs. We then sanded all of the pieces needed for one of the chairs. The sanding took a very long time to complete. During the session we figured out that the plans were very complicated and needed much longer than previously thought. I hope to have the pieces for all of the chairs finished next weekend. At the end of the day, I led the scouts in cleaning up and organizing the workshop and vacuuming the floor.
 
 Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Gave safety briefing, used EDGE to show how to sand, worked with scouts on sanding and assisted Mr. Reed in cutting the wood. Worked with scouts to cleanup and organize workshop and vacuum floors.  3.2
Ashwin Helped sand pieces for the chairs; cleaned and organized workshop and vacuumed floors  3
Paul Helped sand pieces for the chairs and trace the designs; cleaned and organized workshop and vacuumed floors.  3
Nicholas Helped sand pieces for the chairs; cleaned and organized workshop and vacuumed floors  3
 Mr. Reed Cut out pieces for chairs and provided adult supervision  3.2
 Mr. Ahmed Provided adult supervision and took pictures  3.2
 Mrs. DiPippo Performed project review  3

Total Hours: 21.6

 

 

 
 

  
 
Session 5 – Saturday June 29, 2013
During today’s session we completed tracing and cutting out all of the pieces needed for all of the chairs. We also finished the sanding needed for 1.5 chairs. We also figured out that the chairs needed to have extra temporary supports for the arms during the building process so we cut them out. During tomorrows session I hope to have the pieces of all of the chairs sanded and ready to put together.

 Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin  Gave safety briefing, used EDGE to show how to sand, worked with scouts on sanding and assisted Mr. Reed in cutting the wood 3.2
Akil Helped in sanding the pieces for the chair  3.2
Ashwin Helped in sanding the pieces for the chair  3.2
Paul Helped in sanding the pieces for the chair and tracing the designs  3.2
 Mr. Reed Cut out pieces for chairs and provided adult supervision  3.2
 Mr. Ahmed Provided adult supervision and took pictures  3.2

Total Hours: 19.2

  

 
 
Session 6 – Sunday June 30, 2013

During today’s session we finished sanding the pieces for all of the chairs. It took up a huge amount of the session to finish the sanding. We put all of the pieces into piles to see is any pieces were missing. We took the list of all of the pieces needed for each chair and checked off the pieces in each pile. We found out that a couple pieces were missing that we traced and cut out. During the next session, I hope to build the first chair. Since we will be taking a 6 week break for summer vacations, we spent the last half hour organizing and cleaning the work shop and vacuuming with R2D2.

Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Gave safety briefing, used EDGE to show how to sand, worked with scouts on sanding, assisted Mr. Reed in cutting the wood and helped inventory pieces 3.2
Anuttam Helped in sanding the pieces for the chairs, tracing the designs and helped inventory pieces  3
Uttam Helped in sanding the pieces for the chairs and helped inventory pieces  3
Mr. Reed Cut out pieces for chairs, provided adult supervision and helped inventory pieces  3.2
Mr. Ahmed Provided adult supervision, took pictures and helped inventory pieces  3.2
Mr. Rao Provided adult supervision and took pictures  3
 
Total Hours: 18.6
 
  

 

Session 7 – Sunday August 25, 2013

During this session we started assembling Chair 1. We were able to assemble the basic frame. The basic frame included the legs and a couple of the seat slats. We spent much of the session working out how to attach the arms and the frame together because some of the holes were not matching up. Also the middle brace for the seat back slats started to split and we used a nail gun to stop the splitting. We spent the last few minutes of the session going over the next steps and the remaining schedule.

Name  Job  Hours
 Yasin Gave safety briefing, gave direction for sanding, first chair assembly 3
Krish Sanded pieces and helped with assembly  2.5
Mr. Reed Provided adult supervision, cut pieces and helped with assembly  3
Mr. Ahmed Provided adult supervision, took pictures and helped with assembly  3
Mr. Shivakumar Provided adult supervision and helped with assembly  2.5
Total Hours: 14.0
 


Session 8 – Sunday September 8, 2013

 

 

 

Delivery – Sunday October 20, 2013