“Fire in the hole!” With this cry, pumpkins fly. Students in Mrs. Patricia Murphy’s 7th grade STEM class, participated in the 1st Annual Miniature Pumpkin Chunkin Contest. In all, 10 devices were entered into the 2016 competition. Each machine got to throw—so weeks of work and anticipation boils down to about 2 total minutes. The farthest throw wins, and the pumpkin must land away from the base of the machine.
The main objective to this Project Based Unit was for students to be able to follow the science and technology design process to test and assess their prototype, but much more came from it. Students were able to use 21st century skills to be successful team members.
Luke Jones and Kaleb Puckett were this year’s winners, shooting the Terminator, with a distance of 190 cm. Trailing a short distance behind them, shooting the Candy Shooter, was Ashley Bremmerkamp and Alexis Minter. They were able to shoot a distance of 170 cm.
