Just when we thought we were ready to wind down our interdisciplinary investigation of Viking culture and evidence of their early encounters with Native people in North America, things were actually ramping up!
As we learned 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 (or trebuchets) 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 tasked with planning, designing, and testing their own prototype for a catapult (given limited materials and time) that would later be used in our very own Viking siege - SKOL!
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