Marshmallow Madness
by Axtell 7th Grade
June 06, 2008
On Thursday, April 17th Mrs. Novotny’s seventh grade math class began to experiment with simple machines by using mousetrap catapults. The students were divided into groups of two or three. Each group received one mousetrap, two erasers, three popsicle sticks, one rubber band, one plastic spoon and duct tape as needed. The students tried to follow confusing directions to end up waiting until Monday, April 21st for Mrs. Novotny’s expertise on the subject. This led to many jumbo-sized marshmallows flying all over the room! On the 22nd, the students launched their marshmallows form the stage in the old gym in a competition to determine which teams catapult was the most successful in launching theirs the farthest.
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In the end there was a tie between two teams: Kelsey, Alex, and Paige’s team and Gina, Hannah, and Laura’s team. On the 23rd, students tried to launch marshmallows into a trash basket for accuracy. Several teams were successful during their practice shots, but failed to hit the target in the final round.
And now you have the inside scoop of the Marshmallow Catapult.
If you want to in on Marshmallow Madness, here are the directions:
Wrap the rubber band around the lever on the mousetrap that you pull back when setting it. Attach the two erasers, with duct tape, to the front half of the mousetrap. Then remove the rubber band and duct tape and popsicle sticks to the lever: one vertical and the other horizontal. Then tape the spoon to the vertical popsicle stick. Since everything is all setup, you can now load the marshmallow onto the cup of the spoon. Set the mousetrap. Take a popsicle stick and push down on the trigger!!!
