Pumpkins soared through the air at Cahoon Park in Bay Village Thursday, and it had nothing to do with seasonal sorcery. It was all courtesy of Bay Village Middle School students putting science to work.
Teams of sixth graders had worked with parents for weeks to design catapults, trebuchets and slings to launch small pie-sized pumpkins across the field, all for the district's sixth-annual "Punkin' Chunkin'" event.
The teams had various themes for their machines and even dressed up in costumes. One group of sixth-grade girls with a banana-yellow catapult dressed up like Minions from the "Despicable Me" movies, calling themselves "Gru's Crew."
Megan Davis says her daughter Grace and her classmates spent weeks designing and testing the catapult.
"It was totally all them with bananas on the side. And they really used their brain to see how creative they can be with it," she said. "And it turned out awesome, I think."
The students said they had a lot of fun designing and painting the catapult and had practiced using it in one of their front yards. Phoebe Fenik, a student on Gru's Crew, said the students also learned a lot while testing the catapult, including how it eventually broke.
"It doesn’t get any better than watching a bright orange pumpkin fly through the air as far as possible and splattering to smithereens with the crowd reacting with plenty of 'oohs and aahs,."Brent Illenbarger, science teacher, Bay Village Middle School
"We learned a lot about mechanics and force," Fenik said.
The event was meant to reinforce classroom lessons on science, technology engineering and math (STEM disciplines), said Bay Village City School District Superintendent Scott Prebles.
"The opportunity for kids to be involved in STEM projects, working together, collaboration, innovation, all the things that we are looking for, problem solving," Prebles listed as benefits. "And also a lot of these kids have an opportunity to work with their parents on this, which is pretty cool. You know, the old days when you're doing your science fair projects and you work with your parents, it's kind of a nice way for parents to understand what's happening in the classrooms and getting engaged in what we're doing programmatically for our kids."
The district in a press release said 90% of the district's sixth-graders were involved in the event this year, with 38 launching devices created by students.
"It doesn’t get any better than watching a bright orange pumpkin fly through the air as far as possible and splattering to smithereens with the crowd reacting with plenty of 'oohs and aahs,'" sixth-grade science teacher Brent Illenbarger said in the release. "It’s also definitely rewarding and amazing to see the variety of devices created, and watching the students working together as a team. The excitement is contagious and hopefully this event will fuel these students to take an interest in a STEM-related career later in life."
Prebles said parents provide the materials for the devices, and the pumpkins. The district always makes sure to pick up the remaining pumpkin guts left on the field after the event ends, he added.
