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Building A Recurve Bow

May 21, 2020 by CM2 Student Marwa A.

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Driving Question: How can I build a modern recurve bow with the available materials in Panama City and be able to explain the physics behind archery in a simplified way to my audience during showcase?

Project Overview: I have been practicing archery since 2016 and my passion for archery never stopped after joining TGS.

During the Panama term, after finding out about the opportunities the “Fab Lab” (fabrication lab) offered, I couldn’t miss the chance to build and design my own bow. With Educator Dan Garvey’s help I was able to make the “skeleton” of a recurve bow and understand some basics of wood working and lamination.

While working on the project I faced many challenges. The first try of making the bow failed because the wood strips were too thick, so Dan and I made thinner wood strips and experimented with it until the lamination of the bow succeeded. I learnt so much out of this passion project, from real life application of geometrical translations in planes, scaling, wood working to patience and learning how not to give up when something doesn’t succeed during the first try.