Stick Catapults!

Well…we gave popsicle stick catapults a try. My vision for this class was to give the kids a bunch of rubberbands and popsicle sticks and tell them we would make catapults and see which design shot a pompon the farthest. The kids would break up into teams, discuss designs and work together to make a catapult. We would set them all up and have a great time launching pompons. A homeschooling dream.
The reality didn’t quite go that way. The kids didn’t want to work together. The project that I didn’t think anyone would need instructions for(because you know, they are all geniuses and can figure anything out. Ha!) ended up frustrating most of them and some of them almost to tears. I had to look up catapult instructions on my phone and to top it off we didn’t have any pompons.
Thankfully those kids are awesome and didn’t seem to hold it against me for too long. They built catapults from these instructions. https://buggyandbuddy.com/stem-activity-for-kids-popsicle-stick-catapults. Someone found a foam ball and they did their best to make the best of the class.
I’m on a roll.