'Smashing Pumpkins'...of a Different Kind

My forte' in high school subjects was never Math.
Nope, not me. Math and I just never got along. I enjoyed English, Creative Writing and the like. Physics never even came into question.
Now my kids....that's a different story.

So when my son announced earlier this fall that he would be building a 'trebuchet' (a WHAT??)... I asked if it was legal. Of course I got the 'rolled eyes' response, and he said, "Mom, it's for Physics"!
Okay.....well, how would I know?

The culmination of such a great building project comes on the Friday before Halloween. The six teams lug, push, drop, haul, (pick any verb that coincides with heavy lifting) their creation to their respective places on the band practice field behind Midland High. With accuracy they can only hope for, each team takes turns catapulting real pumpkins to a target - in this case a purple trash barrel - that is placed at an unbelievable distance.

Each trebuchet (pronounced 'tray-boo-chay') had it's own personality. They were all 'homemade' of course, but construction had to be just so, in order to hurl those heavy pumpkins. Some catapulted backwards, and we all had to get out of the way, but for the most part, the pumpkins shot out of their slings, as planned - high, far and wide. I was impressed.

My son's team was somewhat thrifty in building their trebuchet. Using leftover wood from one boy's recently built new house, a piece of pump jack as a counterweight, and even driving to Garden City to 'harvest' leftover damaged pumpkins after a recent storm, they had ingeniously come up with a trebuchet that launched by far the highest and furthermost pumpkins. Most of the time. They even hollowed out some of the pumpkins to see if they would go a greater distance.

Did they ever hit their target? Apparently they were the first team to launch a pumpkin into the trash barrel (half in and half out, I was told) , but as the day wore on, each team had their own success. One team even dressed for the day, wearing custom t-shirts that had a picture of a trebuchet on the back with the words, "Have You Hurled Today"?

When the band field literally turned orange from the destruction, being a mom of course I had to ask the infamous question - 'Who cleans this mess up'?" Another ingenious plan - 'Kids get extra credit that come out and help", the physics teacher told me, which apparently they did in record time, because there wasn't a bit of orange on the field when I drove by right after school.

I guess if smashing pumpkins is one way to get kids to learn physics, then I'm all for it. What a cool way to enjoy school, and learn something at the same time.

I sure did!

Happy fall, ya'll!

''The Team' - Michael Mladenka, Kelton Woodard, Andrew Alvarado, Jeff Cook

"Have You Hurled Today"? Team (L-R) Travis Bledsoe (seated); Colton Perry, Mason Sneed, Will Wommack, Ross Montgomery