Projectile Motion: Catapult Project

Item description

There is nothing better to solidify the students understanding of projectile motion than to have them build and test out catapults. Many times, students look forward to this project all marking period. This project allows students to use their understanding of projectile motion to calculate how far their catapult will launch a ball from any given height. Students are always astonished to see the formulas come to life as they work on this project.

Even though I allow the students to build the catapult however they like, I have included an instructional video showing how to make a catapult using my design. You might want to use this video because most of the other videos on YouTube focus on building catapults that can shoot projectiles far, instead of focusing on accuracy and consistency which will be important for performing calculations.

Materials:

Glue (Preferably Hot Glue Gun)
2 Rubber Bands
11 Popsicle Sticks
Balls (foil, skittles, mini ping pong balls, etc.)
Stopwatch

These are NGSS-aligned lessons. Your students will engage in the three-dimensional learning by analyzing data, discussing with other students, designing experiments, and computing multiple-step calculations.

Students Will:
– Build a working catapult (Video instruction included)
– Collect data for how their catapult projects objects (Worksheet included)
– Calculate how fast their catapult launches objects
– Calculate where a ball should land from any given height

Lab Includes:

– Lab worksheets differentiated for CP, Honors, and AP
– Worksheets all have a clear point system
– Teacher’s answers and instructions

– An instructional video with tips
– Just print and you’re ready to go