>> Major funding for Design Squad Nation is provided by: >> The National Science Foundation, where discoveries begin.
Series funding is provided in part by NASA-- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
>> Northrop Grumman Foundation, supporting innovative education experiences for students and educators.
>> And the Lemelson Foundation.
The Foundation sparks, sustains, and celebrates innovation and the inventive spirit in the U.S. and developing countries.
Additional funding is provided by: United Engineering Foundation... >> ...Motorola Foundation.... >> ...and IEEE.
>> I'm Judy.
>> And I'm Adam.
We're engineers.
>> We work with kids... >> This is so cool!
>> ...to make their dreams come true through engineering.
>> ( speaking in Spanish ) >> If you can dream it, you can build it.
>> I never really thought I could do something like this.
>> That was really fun.
( laughing ) >> On Design Squad Nation.
>> Wow, I can't wait to go up to Cusmapa.
Okay, we're going to be working with these kids to build the playground of their dreams.
>> ( speaking in Spanish ) >> ( laughing ) >> No?
Eh.
>> We've got a six hour bus ride ahead of us to get up to Cusmapa.
We're about to hop on a little truck.
We changed vehicles because the ones we were in before won't actually fit through the roads.
>> It's about an hour and a half trip in this rocky truck.
This is it.
This is San José de Cusmapa.
We're here.
Cusmapa actually is the highest community in all of Nicaragua.
>> It's so beautiful here.
>> Hola.
>> Hola.
>> Hola.
¿Cómo está?
>> Bien.
>> Bien?
>> So we're really excited to be here, you guys.
This is incredible.
We'd love to have you guys tell us a little bit about your ideas for the park and kind of what you hope for the park to be.
>> Can I see your drawings?
Can you tell me what you have?
So there's a little house in the tree?
Tree house.
>> Tree house, I love it.
Muy bonita.
>> ( speaking in Spanish ) >> Oh, cool, so that's like a spinner, like a merry-go-round.
>> Oh, cool.
>> That's a cool element.
>> Yeah.
>> Can you tell me about your drawing?
I think tree house is going to be a pretty popular thing.
>> This tree house is a popular item, and we have lots of trees, so that's perfect.
Check it out.
Welcome to the playground.
>> Let's go in.
Oh!
>> Wow.
It's cool.
It's an awesome space.
It is a lot smaller than I... >> Yeah.
>> ...I imagined, yeah.
>> But you know what?
We're going to make it work because we have to.
>> Oh, we will.
It's going to be good.
>> So this is what the kids have in mind for the playground design.
In the center, they have two trees that are going to have a fort connected by this rope bridge.
Across from here is going to be connected with a zip-line to another tree.
Over here, we're going to have one set of tire swings, and over here, we're going to have another set of swings.
We've got a spinning disc right here, and in between the spinning disc and the fort we're going to have this balance beam/teeter-totter.
There's a little performance arts area here, we've got some tires sunken into the ground, and we also have a little garden area in here.
>> Adam.
>> Debra.
>> Debra, hey, good to meet you.
>> Hey, I'm Judy.
We've got a huge build ahead of us tomorrow, so we're going to work with some volunteers from Roadmonkey.
Roadmonkey is a company that takes people like you and I on amazing adventures all around the world.
They combine that with working with a community with a specific need.
In the past, they've done stuff in Tanzania, building desks for elementary school students, so we're going to use their expertise to help us build this playground with the kids in Cusmapa.
( rooster crowing ) >> Hey, everybody.
Come on in.
Well, hola.
( speaking in Spanish ) >> ¿Cómo te llamas?
>> ¿Cómo te llamas?
>> My name is John.
>> John.
>> My name is Nobla.
>> My name is Selby.
>> My name is Nedalbaral.
>> My name Francis.
>> We've got one more here.
>> Lucas.
>> Lucas, we got a Lucas.
>> All right.
>> Si.
>> Si, bueno?
Let's do it, vamos.
So we want to go 80 inches this way.
So we're squaring up the foundation right now for the fort and that's going to go right here, and then the smaller fort with the zip-line attached is going to be right next to it, and once we do this, we're going to start digging the holes.
We have three days to do this entire build, so everything, especially today, has to go according to plan.
We've got to get these holes dug, get the posts in the ground, and pour the concrete.
>> So Selby, we're going to build a spinner.
We're actually building the center part, the spinning part, out of this-- the rear axel of a car.
Imagine if you're looking underneath a car, this is what the wheels are attached to, and you can see it spins pretty well and it's actually very, very smooth.
And the reason the hub spins really smoothly is because it has bearings inside.
Bearings reduce friction, which is a force that resists motion.
A common type of bearing has tiny steel balls that allow the hub to roll around the axel instead of rubbing against it.
Rolling produces less friction than rubbing, so having bearings in the hub of the spinner will make it easier to start spinning and keep spinning.
So this will hold several kids at a time.
>> Yeah, we've got...
Correct, because that's what all kids like to do.
They like to spin until they're sick.
But the big thing we have to do today is to dig a hole.
>> Okay, let's do it.
All right.
We want to have all the holes dug, the posts set, and the concrete in there so that we can actually start building and attaching stuff in there.
And in fact, that's it for everything else in the playground.
( speaking in Spanish ) >> I have dirt in my gloves and in my nails.
Maybe we'll find a dinosaur bone.
>> That'd by awesome.
>> Go, Selby, go.
I really thought this was going to take two hours, but we've got Selby on our team.
Look at this!
It's so awesome!
Look at this hole you dug already!
Selby is an absolute rock star.
I am standing two and a half feet into the ground.
It's a big hole.
This will work.
There are some beautiful holes around here.
>> Now the holes are dug, we're going to put the posts in the holes.
You guys got it?
>> Don't worry about it.
>> Perfect, good.
>> Go straight, yeah.
>> Yeah, that's one.
Okay, that is good.
Right now, we're just trying to get everything laid out and squared.
>> Oh, that's perfect.
>> This is going to be the music area.
We're going to have the percussions and xylophones, and these are going to be the three drums and they're going to be facing a gathering area, so the effect is going to be that you're in a band and you're facing all your friends and giving them a show.
>> Wow, lookit!
Muy bien, muy bien.
>> I have no rhythm!
And now it's time for the concrete mixing.
Concrete is a mixture of sand, gravel, water, and cement.
Sundown's in a few hours.
I think it's at 5:30.
We've got some kids helping us out, so I have some confidence in them, in us, and everybody around here that in two hours we can... we can really get this done.
Typically, we would have a cement mixer, but since we don't, we're kicking it old school and we're making piles.
We're mixing it by transferring from that pile over to this pile.
This is going to mix, mix, and mix until eventually, we have something that looks a bit like this.
So we're going to use these guys to help us out to make sure we have the concrete mixture just right.
>> The concrete's going to go into all the post holes that we just spent all morning digging.
I think there are 30-plus holes.
>> Are you ready for concrete?
>> We have concrete ready to be poured.
>> Come on over!
So the spinner is not going to upright.
The axel is going to be like this, so it's going to lean about to here-- about 15 degrees.
So when you're sitting on there, it's going to feel like this whom, whom, whom, kind of feeling.
This is good.
>> Okay, so it wants to go like that.
The frame of the fort, right now we dug all the holes and we squared all the four-by-fours, all the posts.
Unfortunately, when the concrete was going in, it moved this one a little bit, so we need to move it over.
Oh, the battering ram.
( speaking in Spanish ) >> Boom!
>> Yay!
( applause ) >> That... that feels good.
>> The sun's going down.
It's probably going to take all night for the concrete to set, that's why we've timed it for end of the day so we don't waste any time during the day just waiting for concrete.
So this will be setting while we're resting up for tomorrow's build.
( rooster crowing ) >> Well, good morning to you!
>> Did you hear those roosters this morning?
>> At 5:30?
>> ( laughing ) Yeah, way before the sun came up.
>> It's like, they really do crow at the sunrise.
( rooster crowing ) >> There's one right there.
( laughing ) Oh, wow, we did a lot yesterday.
Look at all this.
Oh, look!
What do you think, rooster, or is that a chicken?
>> This is the second day of the build.
We are checking on the concrete.
It's the first thing in the morning.
And it looks like it's curing pretty well, it's solid.
Some of the kids have written their names on it which is super cool and super cute.
But we're going to try to let it cure as long as possible, but in the meantime, we're going to go ahead and build a platform for the spinner.
We're carrying the lumber up to the woodshop, the carpenteria, to make the cuts for the spinner.
So these guys are going to cut the plywood.
>> Muy bien.
( speaking in Spanish ) ( children laughing ) And then each of these four-by-fours will get mounted directly to this.
All right, let's spin it.
Whoo-hoo!
Ready?
Like, okay.
( laughing ) Wee!
Almost there.
( laughing ) Not quite there, almost there.
This goes up here.
On top of the frame, we will have the plywood octagon shape.
( laughing ) Oh, I think I'll turn the bit sticking out.
>> Yeah.
>> You know what?
I think we should really test it out.
Let's get on it.
( laughing ) >> ( speaking in Spanish ) ( laughing ) >> ( speaking in Spanish ) ( birds chirping ) >> So we're on Day Three now.
It's our final day.
Super exciting, because by the end of the day today, we're going to be done and there's going to be kids running all over the place here.
I can't wait to see it.
That said, we have a lot of work left to do.
On the fort, we are going to be putting the decking in so we actually have a floor to stand on.
We've been working so hard for the past two days to build it, and seeing it come together is going to be a fantastic feeling.
>> You guys, it looks great.
>> Right here, we're going to have a cross between a balance beam and a teeter-totter.
>> Are they going to connect?
>> Yeah, with a... >> The joint thing.
>> ...strip of flexible tire material.
Push more again, and slightly pull it in.
That's pretty close.
( cheering ) ( laughing ) >> ( speaking in Spanish ) Fatima is going to help us out here, putting the rest of the decking in, which is awesome.
( speaking in Spanish ) Muy bien.
This is great, great work.
I'm going to go take off.
>> ( speaking in Spanish ) >> Good work.
Good job, nicely done.
>> Is that two of the same ones, or are they just close together?
>> That's awesome.
The zip-line will go to the back corner, right?
The tree is an anchor point.
We need a clear shot from there.
This is really hard wood, which means that our zip-line is going to be sturdy, but man, it is messing up my drill.
Here we go.
We'll see how much we have for the sides.
It's pretty tight.
Wait, wait, okay.
Everyone all set?
Yeah?
>> Yeah.
>> Whoo-hoo!
( cheering ) >> This is super, super cool to see all the kids running around.
>> We are done, which is awesome, and I have to say we would not be done right now if it weren't for the kids.
>> And not just the kids.
We've had kids, their parents, their grandparents, we've had multiple generations here.
>> It feels like all of Cusmapa came out to help us get this done, and we are incredibly happy that they're having so much fun.
>> Major funding for Design Squad Nation is provided by: >> The National Science Foundation, where discoveries begin.
Series funding is provided in part by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
>> Northrop Grumman Foundation, supporting innovative education experiences for students and educators.
>> And the Lemelson Foundation.
The Foundation sparks, sustains, and celebrates innovation and the inventive spirit in the U.S. and developing countries.
Additional funding is provided by: United Engineering Foundation.
>> Motorola Foundation.
>> And IEEE.
>> Hey, Adam, check this out.
It's the Design Squad Nation Web site.
You can play games on it.
>> Whoa, sweet!
Hey, look at this.
You can watch videos from the show and you can sketch your own new designs.
>> And there's a ton of amazing designs on here from kids at home.
>> Wow, this is a safe climbing wall that you use in the pool.
>> This ferris wheel brings you up to a waterslide.
>> And here's a caterpillar made of inflatable bouncy balls.
So join Design Squad Nation at pbskidsgo.org.
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