At the December Manawa Board of Education meeting four second grade students shared with the board how the catapults they built worked.
The catapults were part of a project that teacher Roseanne Sanderfoot challenged to students to do.
Before the demonstrations, Sanderfoot informed the board that her 91 year old dad had challenged his sons, son-in-laws, nephews and grandsons to try to make a small-scale catapult. He offered $50 to the maker of the first working catapult. The only stipulation was the project had to be fun.
Sanderfoot said she asked her dad if it would be alright to allow her students – both boys and girls – to take on the catapult challenge. He said that would be fine. Sanderfoot said her dad also agreed to pay for a pizza party.
She said the students researched the project on the Internet and also sought the help of their parents.
She also said unfortunately no girls decided to take the challenge, but that she was going to ask her dad to come up with a challenge in the near future that will be more interesting to girls.
The students who demonstrated how their catapults work all had different designs. They catapulted marshmallows and pencil erasers during the demonstration.