Ms. Hanewald’s fourth-graders help STEM teacher, Mr. Joseph Freeman, load up a couple of pumpkins for “chunking“ across the field at Riverside Intermediate School last week.

by Marsha Chartrand

When Cindy Hanewald’s fourth-graders were reading about “Punkin Chunkin“ during their language arts class last month, the idea caught the imagination of many of the kids as Ms. Hanewald showed them short videos of a “trebuchet“ to add to their knowledge base.

It’s not surprising, of course, that many of the kids decided they’d like to build their own trebuchet and give “punkin chunkin“ a try for themselves.

“I went to Mr. (Joseph) Freeman (STEM teacher) and explained what we had read about in class,“ Hanewald said, and I asked if it was something he would be interested in pursuing with his STEM class. He was very receptive to the idea and it took off from there. “He liked how we were combining language arts and STEM to show the students that there is an overlap between subjects.“

The project took some twists and turns along the way over the past month or so, and the process of designing and building the trebuchet took a little longer than anyone had anticipated; but Freeman and Hanewald’s fourth-graders stuck with it. Finally, last Wednesday, the trebuchet (and a goodly number of small pumpkins) were ready for the debut of the project.

“RIVERSIDE — Show your pride!!“ And the countdown began … 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1. And the trebuchet was launched. Some of the pumpkins actually sailed across the field — while some did a backward loop into the parking lot. Each one was greeted with cheers from the audience anyway.

“The students seemed to have a good time and it was a nice way to end a long-term project,“ Freeman said. “As Cindy mentioned, the trebuchet was a way to bring the Language Arts piece to life. The students learned to use a drill, how to measure and cut boards, and they learned a bit of physics along the way.“

As a spur-of-the-moment kind of activity, the project didn’t really follow a lesson plan, but Freeman considered it a successful lesson in that he was also able to integrate his high school students in the building and testing “so it had far-reaching lessons for multiple age groups.“

A high school STEM student launches a great punkin-chunkin experiment at Manchester Jr/Sr High School. (Photo courtesy Joseph Freeman)