Yohance Whyte making the first cut on the base of the Portable Collapsible Tippy-Tap with STEM Program Co-Leader Herbert Brown.
Yohance Whyte had never held a jigsaw before, but that didn’t stop him from making a perfect first cut last Thursday on the base of our Portable Collapsible Tippy-Tap (PCTT).
This hands-on project will be one of our young men’s contributions to the effort to end the global water crisis. Tippy-taps, simple hand-washing stations built from readily available materials, have helped reduce disease in places around the world that lack access to clean water. Our innovation is to make a portable version that also recycles the water through a filtering process, which allows for many more washes per gallon.
This project is part of our Foundation’s larger focus on water, which our young men have studied from their perspective as golfers, scientists, environmentalists and philanthropists. The PCTT will be one of the main attractions at our Water Fair on June 3.
The design is the brain child of our students, who literally started at the drawing board several months ago. Each student designed a concept for the PCTT and presented it to his peers. With suggestions from STEM Program Co-Leader Herbert Brown, our young men refined the design and reached a consensus on a final plan. That led to research on materials, which we’ve now assembled in a temporary workspace around the corner form The Bridge Golf Learning Center. The main components are a wooden base, the water filter, and the water pump.
Foundation after school students with Brown in our temporary workspace around the corner from The Bridge Golf Learning Center.
Juan Cortorreal, Zion Smith, Josiah Yoba, Yohance White and Khaleel Jackson have taken the lead on this project. Zion and Josiah are very interested in engineering and design, and the final design includes many of their original suggestions. Juan is a natural leader who has helped with organization, division of labor, and breaking the larger project into sub-projects.
In addition to the PCTT, our young men are working on an aeroponic, vertical, soil-free Tower Garden, which will also be on display at our Water Fair. (We’ll have more on that project in the near future.)
Our students know they can’t end the global water crisis on their own, but they are doing their part and learning valuable skills and life lessons along the way.