🧪 Science with Sarah: Popsicle Stick Catapults 🎯

“Bulls-eye” of an experiment for your young scientists!

👉 Watch the video of Sarah’s school science experiment here!

Hello parents, teachers and students! If you’re looking for fun way to understand simple machines, this experiment is for you!

Be sure to check out GMSA@9 on Wednesdays when Meteorologist Sarah Spivey does the demonstrations and explains the science behind it.

Science with Sarah: Invite KSAT to your school for live science experiments. (KSAT)

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED

  • 10 jumbo popsicle sticks
  • Rubber bands
  • A plastic bottle cap
  • Glue dots
  • Various soft items to launch (pom poms, cotton balls, mini marshmallows, pencil topper erasers, etc...)

ASSEMBLE THE CATAPULT

  • STEP 1: Cut notches on two of the popsicle sticks. It should look like this ⬇️
Cut notches in two of the popsicle sticks (Copyright KSAT 2023 - All rights reserved)
  • STEP 2: Stack the other 8 popsicle sticks onto each other, binding them on both sides with some rubber bands. It should look like this ⬇️
Bind 8 of the popsicle sticks together with rubber bands (Copyright KSAT 2023 - All rights reserved)
  • STEP 3: Shove one of the notched popsicle sticks through the bottom of the stack and place the other notched popsicle stick on top. Bind these two together along the notches. Again, it should look like this ⬇️
Finalized catapult (Copyright KSAT 2023 - All rights reserved)
  • STEP 4: Using a glue dot, place the bottle cap at the top of the catapult. If you’d like to fortify your catapult, place additional rubber bands across the middle of the catapult. Your final product should look like this ⬇️
The finalized catapult (Copyright KSAT 2023 - All rights reserved)
  • STEP 5: Launch the various soft items from the catapult. See which ones fly farther

SCIENCE WITH SARAH

If you’d like Sarah and David to come to your school and conduct a science experiment live on KSAT, email sciencewithsarah@ksat.com.

Parents and guardians: upload a video of your child performing the activity by clicking here. Send it in and you might see it on GMSA @ 9 a.m.!


About the Authors:

Sarah Spivey is a San Antonio native who grew up watching KSAT. She has been a proud member of the KSAT Weather Authority Team since 2017. Sarah is a Clark High School and Texas A&M University graduate. She previously worked at KTEN News. When Sarah is not busy forecasting, she enjoys hanging out with her husband and cat, and playing music.

Ben Spicer is a digital journalist who works the early morning shift for KSAT.