Wood planks, wood screws, and surgical tubing. These are all things many students used in the catapult project for Mr. Sung’s physics class.

    In the first marking period of the school year, students were assigned a group project where they were required to construct a catapult, trebuchet, or some sort of projectile launcher. The project was due on Dec. 16.

    Groups were required to meet, plan, and built their projects outside of class. For senior Tara Scharaldi, her group got together and each group member participated in the project.

    “My group and I got together to design the catapult. Once everyone agreed on a design, we bought the materials and built it,” Scharaldi said.

    The materials for the project were expensive, especially when something went wrong while building. Sophomore Divya Desai ran into problems while constructing her catapult.

    “Our counterweight wasn’t heavy enough, and we had to fix it,” Desai said. “We had to fix other things too.”

    For others, many alterations were required due to supplies breaking while building.

    “Even though we planned ahead, we had some unexpected problems,” Scharaldi said. “Our wooden arm snapped and our metal arm bent, so we had to make adjustments.”

    Much time, money, and effort was required to build a successful catapult that could launch anywhere from ten to thirty meters.

   On the 16th, students arrived early to bring in their projects. During their class period, each group would have a chance to launch a water balloon at Mr. Sung.

    “We put more than twenty hours into the project. It was really disappointing when we missed Mr. Sung,” Scharaldi said.

    While not every group felt the satisfaction of hitting Mr. Sung with a water balloon, students gained knowledge of how to use tools, design, and experimentation.