Jodi Schwartz, B.A.S.E. Animator

The B.A.S.E. children at Hampstead, Parkdale, Dalkeith, and John Caboto daycares all experienced building and testing mini catapults with their classmates in Ms. Jodi’s Engineering For Everyone program. It was explained that catapults are giant machines that throw things across an area.

The children worked in collaboration with each other in small groups. Everyone took turns assembling a piece at a time. The catapults were created from regular popsicle sticks, large popsicle sticks, elastic bands, egg carton cups, and pompoms.

This exercise taught the children bout kinetic energy via hands on learning in a practical way. They observed that when they pushed down on the large popsicle stick and placed a pompom on top, when released quickly the kinetic energy propelled it forward and across the room. Their friends attempted to catch the pompoms that were being launched by using egg carton cups.

Launch on!