Curricular Response

The Ball Launcher challenge allowed me to test, experiment and use my critical thinking. I had to create 6 prototypes, 3 for the launcher and 3 for the receiver. Then I had to research and figure out which designs worked well. Building the catapult and doing the lab write-up allowed me to go through all the steps of the scientific method process. A problem that occurred was the tape coming undone in multiple places, I had to solve the problem and think of better solutions I could use to improve my launcher. Our hypothesis was supported and the launcher worked well.

Core Competency Self Assessment and Creative Thinking

I am most proud of my ball launcher lab, building our launcher went well and we didn’t have to adjust anything from our first prototype drawing. Our launcher worked better than I had expected, the ball went the farthest out of all the other launchers in our class. I used critical thinking to figure out a way to best solve our problems such as thinking of different ways we could attach our elastic band to prevent it from coming undone. While completing the labs I could easily tell which part of the Scientific Method we were on which allowed me to better understand each step in depth. Each lab went through every step which helped me understand it more because we were performing the step then and there. I demonstrated that I can create new things when I designed 6 prototypes and successfully built both the ball launcher and receiver for our ball launcher lab. I demonstrated that I can build on the ideas of others when I talked with my group to analyze our ideas and figure out what would work best. When trying new things, I expect setbacks and failure and use them to develop my ideas. An example of this from the Scientific Method labs would be experimenting with our receiver to see what would allow it to most effectively catch the ball. We went through many designs altering them slightly each time.