Farm School: Pumpkin Showcase

 Sweet Pea has been enjoying her weekly time at farm school, and recently finished a project for the Pumpkin Showcase held on Halloween at farm school. The students had the option to choose between bringing pumpkin-themed artwork, a pumpkin-themed dish to share, or the pumpkin derby. Sweet Pea chose to build a pumpkin car for the derby. She and dad planned the project in advance, but didn't build it until the night before, as they would need to drill holes into the pumpkin and wanted to preserve it as long as possible. The rules for the derby were that the pumpkin could not sit on a wheeled base, but rather, the axles needed to be attached directly to the pumpkin. With dad's help, Sweet Pea opted for a three wheeled design, and especially chose a bumpy pumpkin that she really liked the look of.

The only downside was the weather. It was an unseasonably hot day, and her pumpkin was starting to wilt, which caused the stabilizers on the back wheel to loosen. We had to do quite a bit of troubleshooting on the fly, and were only able to fix the stabilizers a little bit. As a result, her pumpkin car did not travel as far as she would have liked. However, she was not the only one experiencing technical difficulties. While it was a very fun STEM challenge, vegetables are not very durable building materials!

We were able to get a longer run after some troubleshooting, but I didn't get a video. It was an all-around fun time, though, if a bit chaotic at times (chickens on the racetrack, giant pumpkins crashing into the woods, etc). I was very impressed with how the kids encouraged and helped each other, and how the older kids would help the younger ones come up with solutions when things didn't work right.