Summary

During the remaking of this hoop structure, Antonio, Connor, and I faced many challenges along the way. The first obstacle was finding one day where everyone was available. There were 6 people that we had to get all on the same page, and that was tricky with school and extra curricular activities. Once that struggle was resolved, and we all met on Wednesday, May 27th, we saw many more rode blocks up ahead. First, there was the problem of drills. Because we were sharing the tools with another ESLP from another period, it was a constant battle back and forth for the attention of our supervisors -- Matt and Aaron. We only had two drills, and one of them had a battery that needed to charge. This was a problem because, initially, the only outlets we knew of were inside classrooms nearby, and the teachers had to lock up their rooms when they left. Eventually, we discovered an outside energy source that worked perfectly. The battery was basically dead, so while that was charging, there was only one active drill shared between these two groups. Once we got over our kid instincts not to share with other people, we had the problem of a shaky structure. Of course, attaching three wood support rails isn't going to keep a whole structure in place. We had to put our engineering minds to work. Eventually, we came up with the perfect solution: attach two diagonal support blocks of wood to the long sides of the structure. This held the poles to the bottom of the structure much better than the one beam across did, and we had a stable, well-built structure standing in front of us. The last problem we had were faulty screws and compact wood. The type of screws that we had to use were actually for "cured wood," and we believe that we had more of a hard and compact wooden 2x4. Now, this was a bit tricky for our drills because too much power given to the screws led to the wood cracking and splitting open. Too little power would do nothing because of the thickness of the wood. Eventually, we figured out that it'd be easier if we took a drill bit made for pre-screwing a hole so that our screws fit perfectly. This plan was a success, and now we have a well made, good looking hoop house. This will help in many of the following ways: plants that do not require as much sun as other plants will have a place to stay; future weather storms and nasty weather damage can be prevented, or at least reduced; and it gives Antonio, Connor, and I something to look back at WGHS and say with pride, "We made that."