A Teachable Moment...(of high velocity and sudden stops) AKA How to make a Pumpkin Pie using gravity and a medival siege machine.

Enter the Pumpkin Chucker

Here was a learning opportunity if there ever was one. At Poland Regional High School we had a half day and decided to combine many different learning areas (Math, Physics, History) in one fun filled event of Pumpkin' Chunkin' glory. Jonathan Doughty, a very energetic and awesome science teacher at PRHS has a good friend who constructed a large trebuchet and was willing to transport it out to the school! Through out the whole day we had students measuring projectile distances, time from launch to landing, and the masses of pumpkins and watermelons. There were exercises in mathematical modeling ballistics to find the initial velocity of the projectiles and their highest point. All and all it was a bombastic ballistic bonanza and it was made possible by teachers implementing an idea of a cross discipline educational environment and local businesses donating some of their goods (Chipman Farms "Pumpkin Land" was so gracious to donate sixteen ripe pumpkins to be tossed through out the air). This is one of the reasons I enjoy my new job for opportunities to actually implement cool, fun, and gnarly activities to help spark the intellectual flame of the adolescent mind while simultaneously throwing big mushy balls of organic mass through the air at break neck speeds and have them raining down chunky fury upon the ground!

If you look really closely in the videos you can see where both projectiles landed in the water making quite a splash! (HINT for the watermelon look behind the first telephone pole).

---

---