In the first room I visited at the Children’s school there were four year old students creating their own airplanes. This was done with two planks of wood – roughly the size of a ruler – and a single nut & bolt.

The students’ actions were very much driven by a desire for autonomy. They had no issue using the hand-drills on their own. One particular student was so intrigued by the rotary motion of the drill that they could control on their own that actually drilling the hole became a secondary goal. Another student actually cried out, saying “I wanna do it!”, as the teacher was trying to show her how to properly drill the hole.

Most students did end up completing their airplane, some having time to decorate with markers. Something notable was that a few of the students embodied the industry objective in that they were showing off their accomplishment to other students and the teacher. I believe this objective was not as prevalent in the group as autonomy. This is because not all students got to this point, or even finished their plane before I had to migrate to another room.