We've done a lot of crafts and arts activities so far this year, so we decided to mix it up a bit with an engineering challenge. As I suggested to my co-Guiders, "Let's launch some stuff!".
Before we got into designing and building, I showed them what a catapult is and how they work. We looked at some homemade designs and discussed what items would make a good base, and what we could use as the arm of the catapult. At first I got a lot of blank stares, but they slowly started to come up with some ideas. I put the pictures in a slide deck, which you can find here (the pictures of home made catapults were found on Google Images, they are not my own.): Catapult Presentation
Next we got to building. Everyone started with the same basic supplies that my co-Guider delivered in a supplies drop-off a few weeks earlier. They each got some wooden blocks, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, and some small pieces of foam packaging that we suggested they use as the projectiles (no furniture or decorations were harmed in the making of our catapults). We also encouraged them to use other items from their recycling bin or from around their house (with parent permission, of course).
The results:
I am happy to report that everyone left the meeting with a functioning catapult! I was impressed by the designs that they came up with considering we all started with slightly different materials. Some of the Brownies even made two catapults to test out their different design ideas. We ended the meeting with a bit of target practice and sharing our designs.
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