Catapults

Resources

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Week 1

Intro to project:  Show the students the anchor video and explain to them what exactly they will be doing for the process.  Put them into groups.  Take any questions they may have thus far.

Exploration:  The students will research the different types of catapults they can build and decide with their group which one they will build and begin the design plan.

Lesson 1 – Intro to the properties of quadratic functions.

Finish lesson 1

Have a short assessment over the lesson and then the students will get into their groups and put the finishing touches on their catapult design and building plan.

Week 2

Turn in catapult design Lesson 2 – Quadratic equations, graphing and solving them.

Finish lesson 2

The students will research for and gather materials.  Gather resources.

Assess lesson 2 – discussion and written assessment.

Demonstrations of the teacher’s catapults that he/she has built or a model he she has.

Week 3

The students will do the online simulations of catapults to get familiar with what they will be building.

Lesson 3

Benchmark Lesson: Projectile Motion

Lesson 3

Benchmark Lesson Cont.: Projectile Motion

The students will start Building

Assess Lesson 3 by showing examples of different types of Projectile Motion.

Week 4

Lesson 4

Investigative Lesson: Tie together concepts from week 1 to week 3.

Lesson 4

Investigative Lesson Cont.: Tie together concepts from week 1 to week 3.

Build Day

Review Material learned so far

Midterm of Material from Week 1 to present.

Week 5

Build

Build

Build

Lesson 5 – Excel lesson to get them familiar with how to enter and graph data and the importance of doing so. 

Finish Lesson 5

Week 6

Using catapults:  Have the students catapult two different sizes of water balloons and measure the horizontal distance that they travel.  This will be done outside somewhere, maybe the football field if necessary.

Analyzing data:  Have the students enter their data in an excel file, create graphs, and write up an explanation of their findings.

Presenting:  The students will present their catapults and explain their processes and conclusions.

They will finish presenting and then the teacher will start Lesson 6 (The Extension Lesson – Relating angles)

Wrap up of lesson 6 and a short assessment bringing together everything they have learned in the past 6 weeks.