![]() ![]() TEST: Test your design to see how well it works.CREATE: Build your catapult based on your plan.PLAN: Choose just a couple of your best ideas to sketch out in more detail and decide on which one you want to make.IMAGINE: What do catapults look like? How have people made them with household materials?.ASK: Our task is to make a catapult using the materials we have on hand, but how will we do this?.Remember, we are going to use the engineering design process we mentioned above as a guide for making our catapult. While this is the list of materials we used for our catapult, your materials may vary. This activity is well suited for children in grades three through five. You’ll need around 5 minutes of prep time for this activity and can expect the learning time to be anywhere from 10-60 minutes or more. Argument with a friend? Try following these steps to figure out a solution – instead of building a machine you are using the steps to plan out the conversation you will have with them.įor today, though, we will be using these six steps to help us build our miniature catapult! This isn’t just a guideline for how to solve complex engineering problems it is a process that can be used for a broad variety of everyday issues. Step 6: Improve (how can you make the prototype better?) Step 5: Experiment (test your prototype and see how it works) Step 3: Plan (draw or write out a plan including amount of materials needed) ![]() Step 2: Imagine (what knowledge do you need to better understand the problem?) Step 1: Ask (what problem are you trying to solve?) This is a circular, six-step plan that helps us create the best possible solution to a problem.įrom NASA (who knows a thing or two about engineering), we learn that the engineering design process is: To make our catapults, we will use something that engineers utilize every day: The Engineering Design Process. One of those early creations was the catapult, a device that stores up energy as potential energy to be released all at once as kinetic energy that throws a projectile much further than a human could alone. That’s why ancient and modern engineers created machines that can do it better. Humans love to throw objects fast and far, but there is a limit to what we can do with our arms alone. In this activity, we will use the engineering design process to create our own miniature catapult and send things flying! There are few things that are as inherently exciting as when things are flying through the air, whether the flying object is a hummingbird, a baseball or Charlotte Hornets’ Miles Bridges going up for a slam dunk. ![]()
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