Eckel builds stools for social distancing
Photo by Kyani Bateman
Makananoheamaikalani Eckel puts together a wooden stool to provide portable seating to assist with social distancing, especially at lunch.
Senior Makananoheamaikalani Eckel is making wooden stools to maintain social distancing at lunch since only one person is allowed to sit at the available benches and tables.
Ever since haumāna have started in-person learning, maintaining social distancing has been a challenge, especially during lunch.
Eckel brainstormed with Mr. Greg Lopez and Mrs. Nālani Kaaa and came up with the idea to make stools “mainly to solve the one person per table problem where some people have to eat separately.”
Eckel and Mr. Lopez started this project because he wanted to do something involving woodworking.
While it is important for him to get it done, as it counts for credit, it’s even more important to help keep students safe by allowing proper social distancing.
“The purpose of (making) the stools is to teach carpentry skills as an alternative learning experience at KSM,” Mrs. Kaaa said. “We presently do not offer classes that specialize in the skilled trades, such as automotive, woods, culinary, but there are haumāna that are interested in these kinds of classes. In this case, Makana expressed a possible career interest in carpentry, meaning the stools have given him a hands-on experience in this area.”
Eckel said, “I hope people use it since I did use my spare time to build them all by hand with Mr. Lopez.”
According to Eckel, he hopes haumāna are happy that the school is trying to solve the problem.
While currently it is not clear where exactly the stools will be placed, they will be available around campus for haumāna to use.
Mr. Lopez and Eckel make these stools in their free time, usually after school on Mondays and Fridays. Eckel brings his personal tools when needed to speed up the process of stool-making.
He said they are currently planning on making 15 stools, mainly due to materials constraints. The stools are made out of seven 2×4’s and four 2×2’s.
This is the first round of stool-making. If they observe students using the wooden stools and properly social distancing, they have agreed to make more.
