M&M Catapult project pt. 2- The project

Click here for the Candy Catapult Project Description (updated)

In all honesty, I have probably always liked this project a little more than the kids, but over the past few years I've improved the delivery so that they definitely get into it. My biggest mistake the first year with this was not giving the students an overview of what they were going to do and trying to let the packet speak for itself. That failed... miserably. Now I give an general overview complete with pictures and a discussion of why the lesson is important beforehand and they seem to enjoy and understand it a lot better.


I think one of the reasons I like this project so much is that it actually works. When the kids are consistent and do their calculations correctly, they will hit the center of the target with ease. It's one of the all too rare opportunities that students get to see that the math they did directly affected something in real life.


Some tips for the teacher:

• I generally work the stopwatch for them. I've found myself wincing at how much the kids think the timing is "fine" when they do it on their own. I'll start a countdown out loud, and if I feel like my button presses weren't as good as humanly possible, I'll tell them not to count the trial. Letting them do it on their own (poorly) could I supposed be a "lesson learned" but I feel like after all the calculations they do, they won't realize what exactly went wrong or take such a lesson to heart. It would probably be worthwhile to let your kids try it on their own first, but keep a close eye on the timing aspect.
  

• Strongly encourage the students to make sure they are shooting consistently before they do official trials, and to start over if their official trials aren't close together. You'd think the bold, caps, and underlining in the description would be enough, but my kids tended to be a bit overconfident and tried to rush through without frequent reminders.

•  This project takes me ~2 40 minute classes based on class size and skill level. I'm sure it could be done  faster with more space and more student independence.

•  Having some backup Skittles might be a good idea in case of allergies or dislikes. (I mean, what fun would it be if they couldn't eat some leftovers?)

I realize that there is a bit of hand holding, some of which could be removed to get kids thinking more on their own (especially if you were to give this to an honors class), but it's mostly to get it to fit within time constraints. As with any lesson or project on here, I encourage you to use and edit this to meet your own needs. Let me know what you come up with or if anything is unclear.

M&M Catapult project pt. 1- The catapult plans

This is a fun lesson I've been doing for a couple years now with my Algebra 2 class. This post will briefly explain what the project is about and show how the catapults were made. Part 2 will include the actual project packet, and go into more detail about how it all works.

Each group of students (2-3) gets a small catapult, and shoots M&Ms from it while it is on the ground. They measure how far each shot goes and how long it is in the air and use that to figure out how far the catapult will fire when they place it up on a desk. They place a target where they think their projectile will land, and get points based on how accurate they are. I check in with each group regularly so they aren't getting too far off course. It's probably my favorite project because it takes a large number of the things we've done in the chapter on parabolas and puts it all together, in a "real life" situation. (While firing M&Ms doesn't have much of a purpose, it's pretty easy to get them to understand the correlation to ballistics)

Unfortunately this project does require some setup (making the catapults), but it shouldn't take too long. I bought popsicle sticks, a few small pieces of wood, wood glue and some small clothespins at the local crafts store and used some scissors and masking tape to make this:

If you have Google Sketchup you can see my model of it here.

    

The plans are (I hope) pretty self explanatory from the pictures above. The base was a small piece of hard wood I also found at the craft store. The clothespin sits on a platform made of four popsicle sticks cut up with scissors. The basket to hold the candy is made out of masking tape. I added the guide rails on the sides to help with accuracy, in the picture directly above I removed one so that you could see the interior better. This year I was considering changing the plans to allow some sort of button to fire it to improve accuracy, but overall if the students were careful they came out with excellent results.

Stay tuned for part 2 which will include the actual project the kids do!