STEM Challenge: Build Your Own Catapult Launcher!

Ready for some hands-on engineering fun? Join us for an exciting STEM Challenge where you’ll get to craft your very own catapult launcher! Using simple materials like cardboard tubes, rubber bands, and ping pong balls, you’ll design, build, and test your catapult to see how far you can launch your ping pong projectiles.

This interactive challenge is perfect for young engineers and creative thinkers. You’ll not only have fun building but also learn about physics, force, and angles in a fun and engaging way.

When you build a catapult, you’re learning about some important ideas in physics—the science of how things move. One key concept is force.  A force is simply a push or pull that makes something move. In your catapult, when you pull back on the launcher (the part you’re building with the cardboard tube and rubber bands), you’re storing energy. This stored energy is called potential energy. The more you pull back, the more potential energy you’re building up.

When you release the launcher, the potential energy turns into kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion. The catapult flings the ping pong ball forward because the rubber bands quickly snap back to their original shape, pushing the ball into the air. This is an example of how energy can change from one type to another—potential to kinetic!

There’s also the idea of trajectory, which is the path your ping pong ball will follow after it’s launched. The angle at which you release the ball will change how far and high it flies. By experimenting with different angles and forces, you can figure out how to make your ping pong ball fly the farthest. That’s how real engineers design machines—by testing and tweaking until they get the best results!