This is one of my favorite engineering projects because it can be just for fun or you can learn a lot about the physics of catapults - which makes it a great project for families with kids of multiple ages. I include instructions for two different types of simple catapults. They take about 5 minutes to build and a lot more time trying to hit your target! My challenge to you is to figure out how to control variables to make your catapult as consistent as possible. That means your catapult can hit your target most (80%) of the time. This is not as easy as it sounds. An alternative challenge is to try more than one catapult and determine which one is the most accurate. There are also lots of designs on the web or you can try to build one of your own design. Materials:
Catapult #1:
Catapult #2:
Parent Tip 1: Have your kids launch their item and see approximately where it goes. Then put the target there.
Parent Tip 2: You can define success in multiple ways. Perhaps a younger child is successful if their catapult works 5 out of 10 times (50% success rate) but an older child needs to make 8 out of 10 times (80% success rate). I love engineering projects because it's really easy to do the same challenge but adjust "success" based on age. Share Your Experience: If you do this experiment feel free to share your experience in the comments section below. Happy Engineering!
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You Can Continue to Earn the Patches over the SUmmer!
welcome!
Every school day I will post a new experiment for you to try at home. Some may be familiar to you - as they are my favorites from class - but most will be experiments I found on the web that have readily available materials. Happy Sciencing! Earn a Patch
Sunol Glen Students - Complete an additional 10 experiments (20 total) from this site and I will send you this patch: Parents - just email me when students have completed a challenge, no proof required. Categories |