The class goes outside to test their launchers, and each team was given four chances to get a bean bag into the corn hole. Teams received four points for getting the bean bag in the hole, two points for getting the bean bag on the board, one point if the bean bag bounced off the board, three-fourths of a point for launching the bean bag 15 to 20 feet, half of a point for launching the bean bag ten to 15 feet, and a fourth of a point for launching the bean bag five to ten feet. “I started building last Saturday. We just came up with the idea idea for our catapult when walking down the aisles of Home Depot,” said Israel Lorenzana, 11.

Students line up outside to test their launchers. Some students decided to rely solely on their physics knowledge to build their catapult; others got help from each other and brainstormed different ways that the launcher could be built. “I started with Nicolas Allen over spring break. We spent two days during spring break to work on it. We didn’t have a base idea at first; we just kind of improvised. At first, we thought about doing a slingshot, and after testing, it we decided to go with a catapult,” said Kyle Fehr,11.

Allie Fanning, 12, and Michelle Siddiqui, 12, launch their catapult for the first time. They succeeded in hitting the board their first two trials, gaining a good start for the class. After everyone in the class has tested their launchers four times, the class will compete with the top eight launchers in a tournament. The class also competed against the high score of the day, which was seven points scored by Nathalie Bonin, 11.

Students are given free reign of how to design their launcher. The only requirement was that it could launch a bean bag 20 feet to a corn hole board. “I started working on my design yesterday. I got the idea from a slingshot, but that wasn’t very effective. So I tried a catapult, and that worked much better,” said Sofia Ramos, 11.