Our first field trip (January 15th) of this semester was a special one; rather than the students coming to visit us at Northeastern, we visited their school in New Bedford. The four classes of 8th grade students learned about the engineering design process and the different kinds of engineers. They then learned a bit about the history of, the types of, and the physics of catapults. The students then had just 20 minutes to design and build a catapult. After testing the catapults by shooting them at bulls-eye targets on the ground, the students were given an additional 20 minutes to refine their catapults. The catapults had no difficulty shooting far, but struggled with precision and accuracy. The six best catapults were able to score a combined 19 points. These winners won the right to choose their seating arrangements for an upcoming bus trip.
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- Designing a pull-back catapult
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- Using a rubber-band to standardize the distance pulled down
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- Building the base for the catapult
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- Test-firing at the target
