Just when we were ready to wind down on our interdisciplinary investigation of Viking culture and evidence of their early encounters with Native people in North America, things were actually ramping up!
Learning about the Vikings, their motives for exploration, and how Viking sieges influenced history, we were presented with the perfect opportunity to explore some of the types of siege engines they used and the science behind them - catapults in particular. Learners explored the types of energy within different types of systems, the forces and motion that play a role in designing simple machines, the relationship between potential and kinetic energy and the role energy transfer plays in each stage of launching a catapult's payload. This offered a unique opportunity for an engineering design challenge that required learners to investigate how kinetic energy influences the design of simple machines. Learners were asked to plan, design and test their own prototype for a catapult (given limited materials and time) that would later be used in our very own Viking battle siege (YIKES!). As we reflect on this experience and how the constraints and our design choices might have limited our success, there is much to learn about the importance of research and the iterative process that is used to continually improve a design or product. This week's guest bloggers reflect on this design challenge experience.
My engineering design team did not do any research before we designed our catapult. If we had done some research, it could have helped our team better understand how the rubber bands should have been used. We used too many and it just made it harder to pull them back and increase the amount of potential energy in our payload. Research would have also helped us to figure out how to balance our catapult better. If we had more time to continue making improvements, we would have made a smaller catapult, maybe even a hand-held one. We might have also used a spoon instead of a cup because it would have made it easier to load during the siege. - "Cat"
My team did not do any research before we started. It would have helped us if we did because we would have learned how to make the catapult launch more accurately and make a more stable base. If we had more time, our next iteration would have used a spoon instead of a cup to launch our payload. - "Italy"
My design team did do some research to help inform our catapult design and that really helped us. We were first going to make a basic catapult with popsicle sticks and a spoon, but when we were doing our research, we figured out a better way to increase the amount of potential energy in our payload. If we had more time to work on our design, we might have put the spoon in a more stable spot because it was bending back too far and didn't launch the payload far enough during the siege. - "Drain"
My design team did not do any research to help us get started because we were too caught up in our own ideas and just wanted to get started. We kind of blew it. Research definitely would have helped us in designing a better release and a more stable base so our payload would have launched further during the siege. - "American"
Our engineering design team did not do any research on catapults or ways to increase potential energy. I think it would have helped if we did some research first because we might have made a sturdier catapult and figured out a way to increase the amount of potential energy to help launch our payload farther. - "Tazer"
My engineering design team did not do any research and it definitely would have helped us if we did because we would have realized that our base should stay in place and not move. It was hard to launch our payload because our stand kept moving. If we had more time to continue working on our design, we would have used a spoon instead of a cup to launch our payload. - "Lam"
Our team did not do any research before we got started, but it might have helped us learn about how different types of catapults work and what they look like to give us more ideas for our own design. If we had more time to work on our catapult design, we would change it so that it was smaller, it didn't have a base, and we could just hold it in our hands and fling the payload. - "Rianna"
My team did not research catapults before we started, but it definitely would have helped us. If we knew how big to make it and how to design the best launcher, we might have done better during the siege. If we had more time to work on our design, we would have made a sling to launch our payload because when we pulled back on the rubber band to increase the amount of potential energy in our payload, it wouldn't go that far. - "Water"
Doing research would have helped our design team have a better understanding of how we could have increased the amount of potential energy in our payload and to get other ideas as to how we could design the actual catapult. If we had more time to work on our catapults, our team would probably test every variable that was added as it was added. - "Wifi"
We did not do any research, but if we did it might have helped my team and I make a better base and to make our catapult more sturdy. That way, it might have been easier for us to increase the amount of potential energy in our payload. If we had more time to work on our design, we probably would have changed how we attached the rubber bands so that they would stay tight and our payload would have more potential energy. -"Mango"
Our engineering design team did not do any research to help us with our design. We should have though. If we had more time to work on our design, we would have tried a whole new idea that would help us store the most amount of potential energy possible in our payload to help us launch it the farthest. - "Dune"
Research would have definitely helped my team with our design process. If we had more time, we would have added more of an angle to the launcher so that it didn't launch our payload toward the ceiling. Another thing my team should have added was something to hold our payload in place so that it didn't fall out before we launched it. - "Lil Sting"
My team did not do any research, but if we did, it sure would have helped us a lot. About 10 seconds into the siege, we realized our payload wasn't launching far enough, so we had to go with our "Plan B". If we had more time to continue working on our catapult design, we would have made a simpler catapult - maybe one that was hand-held like some of the other groups made. - "Clover"
Our design team did not do any research, but I have a lot of schema/background so this wasn't my first time doing it. If we had more time to work on improving our design, we could have extended our launcher so that it would have increased the amount of potential energy in our payload. - "Champ"
We didn't do any research to inform our design, but I do think it may have helped if we did because our catapult kept breaking during the siege. If we had done a little research, we might have had more success. If we had more time to continue working on our design, I think we could have added more rubber bands or tape to secure the spoon better to increase the potential energy in our payload. - "Glisten"
Our team did not do any research, but if we did, it might have helped us to find ways to increase the amount of potential energy in our payload so that it would launch farther. - "Rocky"
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