Kids Science Catapult
- Two thick rubber bands
- Cardboard egg carton
- Scissors
- Plastic spoon
- Items to fling and place in the egg carton to weight it down. (We used acorns.)
Steps for Creating the Egg Carton Catapult:
- Cut the cardboard egg carton in half widthwise.
- Place objects in the egg cups inside the egg carton to weight it down.
- Wrap a rubber band around the side of the egg carton. Our egg carton had a lip that we could put the rubber band below to hold it in place.
- Wrap the second rubber band around the egg carton from top to bottom.
- Place the spoon beneath both rubber bands.
How to Achieve the Farthest Fling
We found that we were able to fling the heavier acorns the farthest. The smaller and lighter acorns barely made it a few inches away from the egg carton catapult. The larger and heavier acorns traveled at least a foot if not two.
You could simply put an object in a spoon that has been carefully drawn back and then you can let it fly. It will fly. It may even fly pretty far. JDaniel found that pulling it back and pulling the egg carton off the ramp just a tiny bit added to the force that the spoon was able to use to shoot the object forward. When the carton was pushed down to hold it in place the spoon flung the object just a bit closer to the catapult.
We didn’t explore moving the handle of the spoon higher or lower between the rubber bands. We probably should have. Shifting the spoon handle up to create a long lever at the top would probably have made a huge difference.
We will just have to have another science time with our egg carton catapult. There are probably a lot of other variables we can explore.
If you are looking for another catapult idea you may want to try our paper roll catapult.
If you are looking for more science activities for preschool or kindergarten age children, you may want to explore my Early Learning Science board on Pinterest.
OH boy, this is just the kind of project my 6-yr old can get behind. He would love this and then some!
The students in my preschool class – especially the boys – would have lots of fun with this!
I love how many different things you can do with egg cartons. My boys would absolutely love this.
Just had to stop by — we’ve been doing a fairy tale theme this month in my preschool class. Your egg carton catapult has been a STAR of the kids’ play the past few days!! 🙂
This looks fun! We’ll have to try it out!