Unit Title (?)Choose a title that draws attention to and describes your hands-on, applied academic project.

Material Properties of a Catapult

Related Disciplines (?)List the type of courses that might use this unit (i.e. Algebra 1, General Science, Shop, Drafting, & Pre-Engineering.)

Shop/CTE Course (wood, metal, auto, machining, drafting), Ag Mechanics, Pre-Engineering, Engineering, Physical Science, Physics, Manufacturing

Project Author's Name (?)The name of the lesson author

Scott Seacrist

Brief Project Description (?)help other teachers decide if this project is something they can do, please briefly indicate the equipment and materials they'd need to do this project. For example, you might need a mill, lathe, protractors and 4x2x0.25 pieces of aluminum for each student. Note that you can attach detailed material and equipment lists below.

(1) Students will learn about the evolution of catapult design, (2) understand the properties of common materials used in building the catapults used in class, and (3) apply knowledge gained to determining appropriate usage in varying environments and applications.

Materials & Equipment Required (?)help other teachers decide if this project is something they can do, please briefly indicate the equipment and materials they'd need to do this project. For example, you might need a mill, lathe, protractors and 4x2x0.25 pieces of aluminum for each student. Note that you can attach detailed material and equipment lists below.

Worksheets, datasheets, handouts, piece of each material (recommended), 8.5x11 paper, computer (optional), colored pens and pencils
Computers w/ internet access (for the teacher and/or for all students)

Materials needed: piece of each material (recommended)

Textbooks (?)List any textbook references for this lesson.

Not specified; textbook related to subject matter.

Time for Lesson (?)What is the realistic amount of time students require to do this project? Again, this helps others in deciding how to fit this project into class hours.

Part 1 (pre-lesson): 1 hour
Part 2: Building the STEM catapult--3 hours (contact Sierra College STEM project for assembly of a catapult)
Part 3 (post-lesson): 1 hour

Links & Resources (?)links to other useful web sites for ordering materials, showing as examples of the concept being used in industry, giving demonstrations on an online movie and providing other similar resources.

See attachments.
Fun, optional video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYY1XXQondw
This is a good properties page: http://www-materials.eng.cam.ac.uk/mpsite/properties/default.html
Wikipedia has useful information
MatWeb is a good resource for specific properties of specific materials: http://www.matweb.com/search/PropertySearch.aspx