Catapulter

Dave Burgess always asks, “If kids didn’t have to come to your class would they?” I think some days the answer to my class is no. Teaching math is challenging so when I can plan a fun, engaging & standards-based activity it’s a win for all.

While researching for our parabola unit I stumbled upon the project posted by Julie Reulbach on her blog I Speak Math. If you don’t follow her on Twitter, you should! I adapted her activity a little to make it go along with Clash of Clans and carried the theme throughout the activity.

I shot the orange spikey stones (because if you say balls in front of freshmen…) at students as they walked in the door starting about a week out. They were pretty excited to get to shoot the catapults themselves. Many of them also play Clash of Clans or Clash Royale so they enjoyed that part too. The activity is frustrating for some of them who like to have their hand held through each step. We have them work together at tables and only intervene if the productive struggle is no longer productive.

I also added a #mathsnap to the activity to reinforce the different parts of the parabola. They LOVED making their Bitmoji’s. They haven’t turned the #mathsnaps in yet but I can’t wait to see them.

I have attached all of my documents for this project. Remember, this is modified from Julie’s project. You can get all of her originals here.

This is a printable bulls-eye. I feel like I can use the castle image in the middle since it’s a screen-shot I took from the game. If you feel this is questionable, then take the image off.

Desmos activity This is updated from Julie’s as well. I included the Clash of Clans images (possible copyright issues here – sorry) but it makes it more engaging for the students.

I also drop this document in Google Classroom so students can be self-directed when making the #mathsnap

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