MEXICO – At the Center for Instruction, Technology and Innovation, alternative education students had fun launching pumpkins into the air, all in the name of science.
Students enrolled in the conceptual physics class on CiTI’s main campus recently held the inaugural Punkin Chunkin, which capped off their academic unit on kinematics.
Students spent a majority of the three-week unit researching Newton’s laws of physics, velocity, gravity, different masses, conversions, potential energy and kinetic energy before they designed and tested their own trebuchets.
Several students successfully launched small pumpkins upwards of 185.5 feet in the air before they splattered on the ground behind CiTi’s main building.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” said student Shelly Crumpton (Mexico Academy and Central School District).
CiTi science teacher Christopher Wahl said students will graph data from each launch to find out which trebuchet had the most energy.
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