Murrumbidgee Regional High School

Excellence and Innovation

Telephone02 6966 9600

Emailmurrumbidgee-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Year 7 Science Study Catapults

Year 7 Study Trebuchets

Late last term, Mr Barker brought his Year 7 Science class to the back oval to show off his homemade trebuchet.

Made from recycled materials over the course of a couple of hours, the trebuchet lobbed golf balls, cricket balls and ping pong balls to demonstrate gravity, elasticity, inertia, wind resistance and thrust in action.

It’s not Mr Barker’s first attempt at building a catapult, with the science teacher having built one for a project when he was in Year 8. “The class loved it,” recounts Mr Barker, “It was a great visual demonstration of how forces work.”

The best performing projectile was the golf ball, which flew just over 8 metres. An impressive distance for a small trebuchet. The class will press on with their forces unit and further study the way physics influences our lives this term.