Catapult Description
Catapults have been around since 399 B.C. and are still used in the modern world today. From slingshots to military use, catapults can be used to launch planes in the air or shoot food at siblings. In this project, students were to create a catapult based on the knowledge they gained through research and in the end, have it launch a baseball. One could easily go on the internet and research 'how to build a catapult' but the challenge in this project was to only use the knowledge that they gained from ancient catapults, modern catapults, mathematical and physics concepts, and their own creativity.
Catapult Reflection
For math, the main habits that we used were generalize, collaborate and listen, and visualize. Which ties in nicely with our STEAM concepts: emphasize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and revise. We were in a group of four and independently, we first researched the different types of catapults. That was the generalizing part, we were learning about every type of catapult and weren't yet focused on a specific catapult. We each started to brainstorm and then came together to combine our ideas. All of us had to accept each others work. That's where the collaborate and listen comes in. We had to all contribute but be open to new ideas and create the best possible solution. Once we did have that idea (ideate), and started visualizing how our catapult would look, we started to visualize using sketches to then build our prototype. Except in our case, our prototype was not like our final result. We had an original idea and did do the prototype based on that but once we did built it, we realized it was sort of complicated especially in a bigger scale. So we ditched that idea and restarted the sketches to be able to fully understand what we were going to build. That idea had us very confident and it seemed very simple so we headed straight into building it. John brought all the wood and his tools to build and I brought the eye hooks and surgical tubing. Once our first 'draft' of the catapult was complete, we realized it was so low to the ground that it quickly slid on the ground so we knew we had to add a base. With that base, the catapult ended up going from 15 ft to 90 ft! That's six times more!
For the prototype, only three out of the four of use were there. So we came up with our own prototype. A ballista with a router that had to the ability to be launched with a see-saw on the bottom that held it until we wanted it to be launched. (Photo below) When our member came back, he brought some great and better ideas making us realize how much harder our original prototype was. That's when we realized how crucial each one of our member is. So with the new idea(a simple crossbow structure), we created a few sketches and some small quick prototypes. We were all pretty confident it would work. We were keeping it basic yet effective. In the end, we had a beautiful functional crossbow ballista that even though it wasn't our first original plan, it turned out to be better than our more complex/unnecessary details from the first prototype.
Once we decided on the final catapult idea, we didn't really change it. All we did was add a base so we would be able to launch it at more of an angle. From the beginning of constructing the crossbow ballista, we pretty much knew where we going. As conflicts came across, we smoothly passed over them. An example would be the base, as I mentioned before. Having it propelled higher definitely increased its momentum. Another conflict was the stretchy material we would use. At first we wanted to use some bungee cord but after really thinking about it, we knew it wouldn't be able to launch that far. So we came up with a new idea of using surgical tubing. We got ten feet which was too long for our catapult but a group member figured if we were to fold the surgical tubing, we would get the same tension at 1/2 the distance which was perfect for our catapult size. Another major conflict we had was that the crossbow wouldn't stay on the elevated base so we had to route the bottom part of the crossbow and add longer bolts so the bolts could settle into the routed portion of the base of the crossbow and stay in there which was really effective. The last major conflict we had was that we wanted something to be holding the baseball as it launched rather than the surgical tubing just slapping across it and after trying to come up with different ideas, a member thought of just using a piece of wood so it wouldn't wrap around the baseball and be stable enough to push it, so he just got the holes drilled into it and we stringed in the tubing.The only thing we did last minute was spray painting it black.
After a successful launching day, we got all our data and started finding the missing variables like initial velocity, vertical initial velocity, horizontal initial velocity, and angle. We did take in consideration that gravity did affect the ball being launched but we did not take in consideration the wind speed and air resistance. So our final calculations might be slightly off but we took everything that was under our control under consideration like the time, angle, and final distance of the baseball.
Finally, as in every group, we had both successes and challenges. Our catapult turned out super great. Everyone did their part. People who were in charged of materials, brought them. And if one person was taking initiative on a specific thing, there was always at least one person around to help and was very willing to help even though that specific part wasn't a responsibility they had claimed. Basically this is how our grouped looked on a daily bases: We would talk for a few minutes to see what we had to get done or bring new ideas to the group, someone would get the materials together, someone would adjust them if they needed to (like get them cut) and another would put it together. One challenge that we had that doesn't tie in with the conflicts we had on an actual catapult were absences. There were so many absences! I've never been in a group project with so many absences and this made me realize how crucial everyone is! We changed a lot of things just because one person was missing and we weren't able to get their original ideas (like doing a crossbow instead of a regular ballista)! No matter how much work they actually contribute, everyone's ideas are strongly needed.
For the prototype, only three out of the four of use were there. So we came up with our own prototype. A ballista with a router that had to the ability to be launched with a see-saw on the bottom that held it until we wanted it to be launched. (Photo below) When our member came back, he brought some great and better ideas making us realize how much harder our original prototype was. That's when we realized how crucial each one of our member is. So with the new idea(a simple crossbow structure), we created a few sketches and some small quick prototypes. We were all pretty confident it would work. We were keeping it basic yet effective. In the end, we had a beautiful functional crossbow ballista that even though it wasn't our first original plan, it turned out to be better than our more complex/unnecessary details from the first prototype.
Once we decided on the final catapult idea, we didn't really change it. All we did was add a base so we would be able to launch it at more of an angle. From the beginning of constructing the crossbow ballista, we pretty much knew where we going. As conflicts came across, we smoothly passed over them. An example would be the base, as I mentioned before. Having it propelled higher definitely increased its momentum. Another conflict was the stretchy material we would use. At first we wanted to use some bungee cord but after really thinking about it, we knew it wouldn't be able to launch that far. So we came up with a new idea of using surgical tubing. We got ten feet which was too long for our catapult but a group member figured if we were to fold the surgical tubing, we would get the same tension at 1/2 the distance which was perfect for our catapult size. Another major conflict we had was that the crossbow wouldn't stay on the elevated base so we had to route the bottom part of the crossbow and add longer bolts so the bolts could settle into the routed portion of the base of the crossbow and stay in there which was really effective. The last major conflict we had was that we wanted something to be holding the baseball as it launched rather than the surgical tubing just slapping across it and after trying to come up with different ideas, a member thought of just using a piece of wood so it wouldn't wrap around the baseball and be stable enough to push it, so he just got the holes drilled into it and we stringed in the tubing.The only thing we did last minute was spray painting it black.
After a successful launching day, we got all our data and started finding the missing variables like initial velocity, vertical initial velocity, horizontal initial velocity, and angle. We did take in consideration that gravity did affect the ball being launched but we did not take in consideration the wind speed and air resistance. So our final calculations might be slightly off but we took everything that was under our control under consideration like the time, angle, and final distance of the baseball.
Finally, as in every group, we had both successes and challenges. Our catapult turned out super great. Everyone did their part. People who were in charged of materials, brought them. And if one person was taking initiative on a specific thing, there was always at least one person around to help and was very willing to help even though that specific part wasn't a responsibility they had claimed. Basically this is how our grouped looked on a daily bases: We would talk for a few minutes to see what we had to get done or bring new ideas to the group, someone would get the materials together, someone would adjust them if they needed to (like get them cut) and another would put it together. One challenge that we had that doesn't tie in with the conflicts we had on an actual catapult were absences. There were so many absences! I've never been in a group project with so many absences and this made me realize how crucial everyone is! We changed a lot of things just because one person was missing and we weren't able to get their original ideas (like doing a crossbow instead of a regular ballista)! No matter how much work they actually contribute, everyone's ideas are strongly needed.