Giggles and more giggles because there’s nothing better then flying eggs or at least the plastic Easter egg kind. You probably have a gazillion of these by now and every year you still feel compelled to buy a few more. Well here’s a super fun Easter catapult STEM activity that will have everyone laughing and learning at the same time.

Explore STEM For Easter

STEM and Easter! A perfect match because here we love to pair the holidays with cool but easy-to-make STEM activities! So this year, we have added an Easter catapult to our list of Easter science and STEM activities you can try with the kids.

If you want to learn more about STEM, check out our huge resource and informational articles on STEM for different age levels!

How To Make An Easter Catapult

Catapult Video:

Supplies:

  • 10 Jumbo Popsicle Sticks {plus more for experimenting}
  • Rubber Bands
  • Spoon
  • Plastic Eggs {various sizes}

Instructions:

STEP 1. Stack 8 jumbo popsicle sticks together.

STEP 2. Insert one jumbo popsicle stick into the stack resting on the top of the bottom last stick. Just a small portion of the stick should be through. This step can be done after the next if you wish,

STEP 3. Tightly wind rubber bands around either end of your stack.

STEP 4. Place the last jumbo popsicle stick on top of the stack in the same position as the stick that you have already inserted.

STEP 5. Wind a rubber band around the small ends as seen below. This rubber band should not be super tight. With other catapults we have made little notches in the two popsicle sticks so the rubber band stays put, but this works fine too.

Very quick and simple. You can add a spoon in a couple different ways or none at all as seen below.

This is a great way to experiment with design and how it effects the motion of the catapult.

WANT MORE WAYS TO LAUNCH EGGS? Plastic Egg Launchers Kids Can Make!

Easter Catapult Variations for Easter Science and STEMPin

How Does A Catapult Work?

Now that you have built a simple and cool Easter catapult, so what’s the STEM behind it?

A catapult is a simple machine; you are correct if you guessed the lever! What are the parts of a lever? A lever has an arm {popsicle sticks}, fulcrum or what the arm balances on {more popsicle sticks}, and the load, which is the object to launch.

Newton’s three Laws of Motion state that an object at rest stays at rest until a force is applied, and an object will stay in motion until something creates an imbalance in the motion. Every action causes a reaction.

Learn more about potential and kinetic forms of energy here!

When you pull down the lever arm, all that potential energy gets stored up! Release it, and that potential energy gradually changes to kinetic energy. Gravity also does its part, pulling the egg back down to the ground.

Play and Learn with an Easter Popsicle Stick Catapult Building Activity Pin

Set Up An Experiment

We decided to first test different-sized plastic eggs to see which of our loads would fly the farthest. This is the perfect opportunity to make a few predictions and create a hypothesis. Download our worksheet below to your desktop and print it out.

Small, medium, and large eggs. Which one will go the farthest? This Easter catapult STEM activity gives you several ways to use all the pillars of a good STEM project. Grab a measuring tape and record data on each egg to draw your conclusions.

My son predicted the largest egg would travel farther, but it didn’t. Its size held it back, and it more or less pooped up into the air and fell not too far away from the catapult.

Tinker With The Design

Bring out those engineering skills! Sure, you just made a catapult, but can you make it better? My son didn’t care for the catapult’s lack of momentum, so he decided to tinker with the spoon placement. I assisted with some of the rubber band action.

TRIAL 1: Spoon head past popsicle stick. This position did not create enough force unless you pulled it back to the table’s edge, but it still didn’t have a great launch. Was the lever arm too long?

TRIAL 2: No spoon, just rubber bands. This one had a good launch, but you could only sit half an egg on it.

TRIAL 3: Attach the spoon to the lever arm so it’s the same length, and you have the best of both! This is a winner, winner chicken dinner.

Launching Easter Eggs with a Popsicle Stick Catapult for Easter STEMPin

More Fun Catapult Designs

Explore physics and how catapults work with other catapult construction ideas including:

Bonus Easter STEM Activities To Try

Printable Easter Project Pack

  • 20+ Easter science activities and STEM projects kids that are easy to set up and fit into the time you have available even if it’s limited!
  • Printable Easter theme STEM activities that are simple but engaging for home or classroom. Perfect for K-2 and beyond but easily adaptable to many skill levels.
  • Dive into simple background science explanations to share with kids while they explore hands-on and playful experiments, projects, and activities such as Easter oobleck, erupting eggs, regrowing lettuce, and more!
  • Engaging Easter STEM activities pack with theme activities, journal pages, and design process steps! Learn about the design process and think like an engineer while you design and build a better Easter basket and more!
  • Easy to gather supplies makes these STEM activities ideal when you have limited resources available. Specialty activities include a catapult and balloon rocket challenge pack with log sheets!
  • Additional STEM activities: Include the great Easter egg tower, spaghetti, marshmallow challenge Easter theme, brick building ideas, puzzles, and screen-free coding activities.

INCLUDES: 

  • Easter STEM Pack
  • PEEPS Theme STEM Pack
  • Easter Slime Science Pack

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