On November 13, Edlin School celebrated our annual Pumpkin Chunkin’ Festival. The special event highlights our school’s commitment to science education, hands-on learning, and making science fun. By rotating through a series of activities, the students learned all about the principles and workings of our main attraction- our Pumpkin Chunkin’ Trebuchet. One station allowed the students to experience potential and kinetic energy by firing tennis balls at targets. Another station taught the students everything about levers, mechanical advantage, and how levers can be used to make work easier. A third station allowed the students to build their own catapults, or trebuchets to better understand their parts and construction. Armed with their new-found knowledge, the students were also able to get an up close look at our full-sized trebuchet, and a demonstration of how it can fling pumpkins up to 200 feet across the playground using leverage and energy transfers.
