Hugo Estrada's House of Wonder

This morning, at Crunchy Granola Academy, we finished out trebuchet models. Here you can see our young engineers working earnestly on their machines. Smile to the camera, Alexander! Now put back your hard hat. Safety First!

Isabella successfully launched a cherio from her model. Notice the pink sling. Isabella designed the stabilizing system; without it, the trebuchet flips over. The standard solution is to put the structure on wheels; she decided to stabilize it with extra anchors instead.

Here is detail shot of the sling and weight. The weight is a battery taped to the rod. The sling was made with a rag.

Our learning experience showed that the hardest part of making these models is to make an appropriate sling. The wrong sling shape will not throw the objects the right way. Our models were so small that making the slings were tricky. We believe that making a bigger model should make the sling making easier.

Here is my model: