Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Bomb's Away! A Ping Pong Catapult
With this project you'll send ping pong balls flying through the air with a rubber-band powered catapult. This catapult makes it easy to reproduce the launch angle, and to measure the amount of force applied to the projectile. Armed with...
PBS
Pbs Nova: Secrets of Lost Empires
NOVA ferrets out long-forgotten secrets of architects and engineers of the early civilizations. Content focuses on the trebuchets of medieval Europe, the pharaoh's obelisks of ancient Egypt, the moai statues of Easter Island, the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Right on Target: Catapult Game
Students experience the engineering design process as they design and build accurate and precise catapults using common materials. They use their catapults to participate in a game in which they launch Ping-Pong balls to attempt to hit...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Flying T Shirts
During this engineering design/build project, students investigate many different solutions to a problem. Their design challenge is to find a way to get school t-shirts up into the stands during home sporting events. They follow the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Trebuchet Launch
Students work as engineers to design and test trebuchets (in this case LEGO MINDSTORMS robots) that can launch objects. During the testing stage, they change one variable at a time to study its effect on the outcome of their designs....
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: The Physics and Engineering of a Trebuchet
In this simple machines lab students investigate how the trebuchet works using their prior knowledge of simple machines. Students then build a trebuchet and analyze the physics and engineering that goes into building and launching it.
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Trebuchet Toss
A lesson through which young scholars design and build a small trebuchet from everyday materials. After building and testing their models, students will compete to see whose prototype produces the farthest launch.