Originally this design was created for in-house use only. I work as a tech lab program lead for a youth center on the army base where I grew up. I teach science and technology and do assorted projects with middle school and high school students. When I first got started at the center I had missed the deadline for requesting materials and such so I had to be a little creative for those first few weeks. This was one of the projects I came up with on the fly.

I knew that I wanted to do a series of catapults with the kids but we didn't have the supplies on hand for the more advanced designs. This project was the result of a day's worth of trial and error. The only supplies I used were the ones I had on hand and the rubber bands I used even had to be scrounged up from other programs' supplies. I was surprised at how well it worked and the kids loved them.

So far we have successfully run the program with my older kids as well as the elementary age kids at one of our other centers. It takes about fifteen to twenty minutes for me to make one and about forty-ish minutes for the kids. (And if a project can keep a middle schooler's attention for that long you know it has to be good!) It takes longer depending on the size of the group, too.

Okay, on with the instructable!