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This week was our first week in the classroom for this semester and our first activity was to make catapults. We started the discussion with what the students learned last semester and then transitioned into the day's activity. We talked about restoring forces and used gravity and a spring as an example. We asked the students for other examples and they came up with bungee jumping with a little guidance from us. After talking about restoring forces and how the higher you drop something or further you stretch a spring the greater the force. There were not enough popsicle sticks for every student to make their own so we let the students pick their own groups of three. Each student was given a worksheet to draw a picture of their catapult before we handed out materials. The students worked for about half an hour or so on their catapult. They all worked well together and came up with some unique and interesting ways to create a catapult. When time was up all the students tried out their catapult and we kept track of how far the ball went for each group. The students were really excited about making catapults and wanted to keep them. I am really excited about this semester and cannot wait until the next activity!!
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