Marshmellow Launch

Another cool, summer science activity I plan to do with my daughter is the Marshmellow Launch.  I found this activity from Fascinating Science Activities for Kids.  I tested it out this week in my summer camp class for 3rd - 5th graders.  The basic idea is to create a catapult or slingshot using rubber bands.  It seems like an easy project but creating a slingshot that launches a marshmellow accurately each time is very difficult, as we quickly found out.  The sling shot needs to have a "bucket" for the marshmellow to sit in and the trick is making the bucket stable.  If the bucket tilts or flips around during launch, the marshmellow may not launch or it may launch in a different direction.  This happened for most of our marshmellow launchers.  One launcher, however, did much better than the others, so I snapped a few pictures of it.

Marshmellow Launcher

Ready to launch!

Goal = bucket in back.

This launcher worked the best because the "bucket" was stabilized by the four sets of rubber band cables.  Those stabilized with only two cables did not fare as well.  We launched many marshmellows but only one of them landed in the goal and that was a ricochet off the back wall!

I haven't yet tried this activity with my daughter, but it's on the list.  I learned many lessons from this class and have several new ideas on creating more accurate launchers.  This is an activity that works for older kids as well.  Simply ask them to make more elaborate launchers.  I will add that watching a launched marshmellow is very cool.  Since a marshmellow is squishy, it changes shape while in the air and it's easy to pick out the change in shape with your eye.  

Good luck launching!