Science and math converge in catapult contraptions as pumpkins provide the seasonal ammo for a class competition.
By MARSHA STRICKHOUSER
Published October 29, 2004
EAST LAKE - With the teams suited up and ready to compete, the announcer at East Lake High School's football field had two warnings.
"Move away from the possible path of the launcher, and keep your eyes on the pumpkin."
On Wednesday night, the gridiron belonged not to the football team, but to the graphing calculator crowd.
Grades and glory were on the line. Twelve teams were vying for 13 awards in the Trisics Annual Pumpkin Toss.
"You can learn math, but using it is a different story," said physics teacher Kathryn Phebus, who has planned the event with mathematics teacher Joyce Svabek for the past 12 years.
The project was a part of East Lake High's Trisics course, which integrates trigonometry and physics. The object of the competition was not only to launch a pumpkin as far as possible but to predict where it would land. Students also had to try to hit a target.
The students spent weeks in groups doing research to build their catapults. Local engineers visited the class to review plans and offer tips. The students made drawings, detailed schematics and built a minihurling device with wood and pingpong balls.
They gave up sleep, work and the occasional class to get the job done, using their parents' garages and back yards to stow the goods that had been donated by local home-building stores and other resources, including food from local bakeries and fast-food restaurants.
Once they took the field, teenagers made a mad dash to the trunk of their teacher's car. That's where the pumpkins waited.
Catapults were made from wood 2-by-4s, free weights, sand, plastic crates, garbage cans, tires and basketball nets. Some were big, some fairly small in comparison. Some were colorful, and some just plain didn't work.
"At least we didn't go backward," said Kelly Dahl, 16, of a team known as the Greek Gods.
Unfortunately, the Yellow Fever team did just that, earning applause and winning the "Could I have one more try?" award.
The Swashbuckling Scallywags seemed prepared for a dip into fame. With pirate hats and outfits, a rolled treasure map, and music from the Pirates of the Caribbean , they raced through the crowd shouting as audience members waved Bucs flags. Their catapult was dubbed "The Black Pearl" and was weighted by 850 pounds of sand. They expected it to hurl a pumpkin 40 feet.
Instead, the Pearl hurled its payload 195 feet as the stunned crowd gasped, shouted and cheered. The distance - two-thirds the length of the field - was the farthest any pumpkin had been thrown in 12 years, according to Phebus. The team won hands-down for both outstanding distance and highest trajectory.
"We're pretty happy right now," Swashbuckler Miles Doran said.
Four girls dressed in flowing white togas with gold trim and one boy dressed as a god made up the Greek Gods team. Their 10-foot catapult was painted blue with white clouds and a nylon basketball set to hurl the pumpkin. They predicted 30 feet and sent it 48 feet.
"I wanted a smart team," said Greek goddess Courtney Straub. They chose Alison Pawlicki, 16, who was chatting about centrifugal force with a teammate, analyzing the competition and pondering what her own team could have done better. The group spent days after school from 2 to 8 p.m., four hours on weekends and eight trips to the home improvement store.
The contraption stayed in Straub's garage, where her mother said some wood left over from hurricane preparations went into its making. On Wednesday, the girls handed out baklava and won the award for best presentation.
The Bravehearts, who donned plaid kilts, nonetheless looked fierce with bare chests and blue painted faces. Juniors Joel Mason and Chris Akins, both 16, and others stayed up until 11:30 p.m. working on the project. Their 20-foot high catapult even had wheels. They predicted 25 feet and made 78 feet and were awarded the Newton award for the group who best explains the physics behind their project.
Contest judge Amy Len had been in one of the first classes to take part in the catapulting exercise in 1998. She came back for the second year as a judge. As an electrical engineer with a St. Petersburg company, she remembers the competition as a free-for-all. She said the catapults were a lot larger in her day, but students have had more restrictions put on them over the years.
"The kids did a great job," said Joe Romeo, an electrical and mechanical engineer and one of four judges. The Swashbucklers "wasn't a difficult decision at all, but the others were."
