Introduction – What are you doing

A famous YouTube stuntman, 1cr4zym0fo, has offered $100,000 to the team that can safely throw him 300+ feet into a pool of water. Because your team doesn’t have the money to build a full-scale replica, you’ll be performing a small-scale experiment using an army man, a wire basket placed 10 feet away, and whatever materials you can find.

Remember, your client is a stuntman – he wants to do something crazy! Simply sliding him in or using a zipline is not insane enough. Think big, think medieval siege weapons like catapults or ballistae. Research will be necessary to help refine your designs, and hone your proof of concept.

Requirements & Assessment – What you need to do

Your report needs:

1. 1,000-1,500 words (2 points)
2. At least 3 sources, cited on a separate Works Cited page in APA format (2 points)
3. Clearly labeled headings for each section (2 points)
4. A title, eg: “Human Catapult Feasibility Study.” “Engineering Report” is the assignment, not a title. (2 points)
5. To be written in past tense and passive voice, eg: “The research has been carried out,” rather than “We researched…” This is probably the only time you’ll want to use passive voice. (2 points)

Your report should also be laid out as follows: (3 points for all sections & content)

1. Abstract – very short (2-3 sentences maximum,) describing your experiment, and stating the end result.
2. Introduction – explain the problem you’re researching, give context for the experiment (why you’re performing the experiment, what your goal is,) and discuss the limitations of the research.
3. Literature Review – this is where most people go wrong. The Literature Review is where you evaluate your sources, stating specifically what you learned from each If you consulted a source but learned nothing useful from it, say that. Do not discuss your design or process in the Literature Review. All this should do is tell us what information you got from your sources.
4. Methodology – explain how data was gathered and analyzed. You can assume your reader knows and understands the material.
5. Results – tell us what happened. Which of your designs worked the best? Were you successful in launching your army man into the basket? This doesn’t need to be very long, 1-2 paragraphs should do.
6. Discussion – tell us why you think you got the results you did. How do your results compare to your research? Did you get the result you expected? Why or why not?
7. Summary – discuss any strengths and weaknesses in the study, anything you still need to learn (for example, if you were to repeat this experiment, what more do you need to know in order to be successful?) How can the knowledge you gained through the experiment be applied to future research?

Links

Here are the links for the sources that I used, if you need.

https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/pencil-catapult-school-stem-activity/

https://sciencing.com/calculate-catapult-force-6392185.html

https://youtu.be/lA6a2EgGi_E

https://youtu.be/WpLFC_SOpXs