Catapults & School Play

This last week we have been busy with school projects and the school play.  Both of which where really fun, so I thought I would share a little bit about what we have been up to.

My daughter, for her high school physics class, had to build, along with her partner, a catapult or trebuchet or air cannon, to launch in order to measure arcs and distance and what not.  So my daughter and her project partner spent the week searching online, and planning out the best design for their catapult.

After gathering all their supplies, they spent an evening with Gary out in the garage building and then testing their catapult.  It was dark outside before it was completed and ready to be tested, and rather than go over to the park, they tested it out under the street lights on the road in front of our house.  Thankfully no cars were parked, and we have very little traffic.  It was cold and rainy, but the kids all had fun launching their catapult.  Joseph got in on the action, as well as another school friend who also stopped by.

When they all were huddling together to stay warm, I had to have Gary get a picture.

Here is how their catapult turned out, it worked very well..  They will spend more time next week, launching, and recording results for all their physics calculating.    What a fun project!

In addition to catapult building, my son was gearing up for opening night of the school play.  This is his first school play, and he plays the role of Father in the play called The Giver, based on the book The Giver by Lois Lowry.

The book is about a seemingly perfect society, where there is no pain and everything is under control, everyone is assigned a roll, and there are no choices, their world is grey.  The main character is then chosen as the new receiver of all memories, and feelings, it is then that he learns the truth about his society.  He then must make a choice as to what he will do given this new information.  Very thought provoking storyline.

I went to the play opening night, and really enjoyed it, all the kids did a wonderful job.  Here are a few pictures of the play.

Joseph is sitting at the far left of the table, he is The Father, and he is sitting here with his family.

So that is what we have been up to.  School plays are so fun to attend.  I look forward to the next interesting school project and school play next term.

Today is Presidents Day, trying to decide between making an apple pie or a cherry pie, or some other cherry themed dessert.  Anyone else make anything special for Presidents Day?

Hope you all have a nice week.

Here is my Amazon affiliate link for The Giver if anyone wants to learn more about this book.  It is often assigned as a Middle School reading choice, but has been contested as being too serious for Middle School age, however, I think it is wonderful discussion material for anyone in high school.