Catapult Shooter
Materials per group:
Popsicle stick
meter stick or tape
CheeriOs or other cereal
pencil
small cups
Prediction-Hypothesis:
How can you consistantly get cereal into a cup “X”
inches away?
Procedure:
Let students design experiment using the materials listed.
Put the Popsicle stick across the pencil.
Put a piece of cereal on the end of the stick touching the floor.
Flip the cereal by hitting the stick end that is in the air.
Mark where the pencil(fulcrum) is.
Record the distance in an organized chart.
Change the location of the fulcrum. Record.
Now have groups try to get the cereal into a cup “X” inches
from catapult.
Record Results:
Make a chart of your trials.
Explain how you succeeded at hitting the cup.
Write about your experiment.
Conclusions:
How does placement of the fulcrum effect experiment?
Were there other variables that affected the catapult?
Extensions:
Set up other experiments testing variables.
How could this be used for work?
Go
back to lever page