The Great Pink Pearl Launcher Assignment

This collection of resources can be used to run The Great Pink Pearl Launcher activity with your Grade 5-8 class. It includes a student worksheet, a historical background handout about medieval siege engines, teacher instructions, and a final rubric. A free Excel spreadsheet (The Great Pink Pearl Launcher Assignment Spreadsheet) that automatically calculates the total “cost” for each students  is available from my store.

Students will build a machine for launching half of a Pink Pearl eraser (roughly 10 grams) the furthest while working within a "budget" based on their materials. This is a fun way to teach students about forces, energy, mass, simple machines, and design work.