How far can you make a puff ball fly through the air? For this STEM Like a Girl challenge, you will be designing and testing a launcher device using a few common household items while also learning about energy. Are you up for the challenge?
Background:
Diving boards, sling shots, automatic baseball pitchers, and even pop-up toasters are all examples of “launcher” devices. These machines store energy in them which can then be used to propel an object in the air. Think about a rubber band. When you stretch it between your fingers and hold it still, it has stored energy in it. This stored energy is call potential energy. You can control how much potential energy is stored in the rubber band based on how much you stretch it. When you let the rubber band go, this potential energy is transferred to kinetic energy, or energy of motion. This is an example of a simple launcher. Think about the examples given above and how they each store and release energy.
Mechanical engineers design machines to perform a specific task. They need to think about the task, plan and design the machine, test it, evaluate its success, and make adjustments to their design. Most of the time, the first couple test designs don’t work too well but with each unsuccessful test, the engineers learn how to improve the machine. For this challenge you will be a mechanical engineer, work through these steps, and design a launcher!
How far do you think you can make your ball fly through the air?
Materials:
- Small, light object to launch (examples are puff balls, marshmallows, ping-pong balls)
- Craft sticks
- Rubber bands
- Small plastic or paper cup
- Plastic spoon
- Tape
- Measuring tape
- Launch It Experiment Test Sheet
Methods:
- Download and print the Launch It Experiment Test Sheet.
- After examining your materials, take some time to think about your design and draw it out.
- Using the materials given, start designing your launcher. (You don’t have to use all the materials).
- When you think you have a design, lay out your test site with your measuring tape and get testing!
- Once you’ve tried your device, think about how well it worked (or didn’t work!). Then think about ways you could improve your launcher and retest.
This is a fun activity for the whole family to try! Challenge each other to see who can launch the ball farthest. We purposely didn’t include any pictures of the launchers we made because we want YOU to come up with ideas on your own! Let your daughter use her imagination and you might be amazed at the different designs kids come up with.
We’d love to see pictures of the launchers you create and hear how far they flew! Email your pictures to info@stemlikeagirl.org to be featured on our website or social media. Or you can tag us on instagram @stemlikeagirl_pdx or use the hashtag #stemlikeagirlchallengeofthemonth
