Catapult Building

Building a catapult is a cool summer activity you can do with your kids.  I tried this for the first time with my high school students in Physics class.  They were given a goal of launching  marbles into a bucket located 5 meters from the catapult.  They were given very few restrictions or guidelines because I wanted them to be creative and was simply curious as to what they'd come up with.  Not all of the catapults successfully launched the marble into the bucket, but more than half did and the others were close.  Overall I was very impressed.  Here are a few pictures of catapults they built.

Catapults can be built by anyone of any age.  The younger your child, the more help he/she will need, but it's a great opportunity for you to assist your child in building something of his/her own creation!  See what you can come up with!  Try launching different objects.  What makes the object launch farther?  Higher?  Best accuracy?  Least accuracy?  Use your imagination and let your child use his/her imagination.