Early Ending

Things had finally started coming together for the cob bench. I was able to source materials from the Olive Springs Quarry in Santa Cruz. With the new materials, the Los Arboles Middle School students were able to make practice cob bricks. The practice bricks worked perfectly, and we finally saw our students get excited about working in the outdoor classroom. After testing the cob mixture, we were able to move forward with the foundation. I was able to acquire recycled, broken concrete and mortar mix to help promote the idea of sustainability to the students. First, the students dug an outline about 4 inches deep in the area the bench was to be built. Then they mixed the mortar and used it to cement the broken concrete together. The students can be seen mixing mortar in the image to the left. It only took two class periods to build because the students were efficient with their time and genuinely seemed excited to see the project through. The completed foundation can be seen below. Due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, we will not be returning to Los Arboles to complete the project. As this is an exclusively hands-on building experience for the students, it is unlikely we will be able to provide them with any additional material to continue the project at home. We will likely be providing instructional materials to Julie Haws, the Los Arboles Middle School teacher, so she will be able to complete this project at a later date if she chooses to do so.