Text
The activity process
Photo of the event
- Discussed with my teammate and tried to build the base of catapult.
- Threw the ping pong ball with catapult.
- Finally, we succeeded in the third throw.
- I am honored to be invited to make a small conclusion for that day.
5R Framework for Reflection
Reporting
On 6 March 2020, I joined an event called Royal Engineering Festival 2020: UTM Catapult Challenge. This event was organized by JKM of KTC at Dewan Astana (S01). The purpose of this event was to enhance our imaginary ability and hands-on ability. It also gave us a chance to apply our physics knowledge and get us creative juices flowing. This event started around 12pm and ended at 4pm.
At 11: 30pm, my friends and I went to Dewan Astana. Since we did not have any transportations, therefore we had to set off early so that we will not ended up late. Because we came from another state, the inconvenience of transport had always been a problem that we faced. So in order to get the hostel that is near to our faculty, merit marks had become important and indispensable to us. This was also one of the reason that we participated in this event.
After briefing and ice breaking, the organizer divided us into 12 groups and provided us with a few ice cream sticks, a plastic spoon and some rubber bands. I formed a team with another 4 people where they are from Faculty Science, FS. Although we barely know with each other, but I still being active in the discussion. Since they were unfamiliar in this field, so I think that I was responsible to guide them (Leader skill). After a short discussion, we decided to build a small Mangonel as our catapult.
Due to limited materials, we only used 4 ice cream sticks to build the base and 7 sticks as its body. Initially, we faced two problems which is the base of catapult unstable due to lack of elasticity of the rubber band and the plastic spoon tend to break easily. After we changed the method of tied rubber bands and attached a piece of wood with plastic spoon to increase its strength, finally we solve the problems and formed our catapult.
Before the real competition, the organizer allowed us to try our catapult with unlimited times. There were 3 boxes that consisted of different marks which 5, 10, and 5 marks respectively. We only had 3 times to throw the ping pong ball, so my group decided to target the middle box which is the highest marks. The first and second ball we missed it due to rebound of ping pong ball, but fortunately, we did it in the third times. Although we did not win the game, but I still felt very satisfied to be able to build a catapult from material provided.
(This is just a reference picture, not the real one XD)
Responding
This event make me realized that one’s ability is limited. Teamwork is indispensable in most scenarios (Teamwork skill). When our team was formed at the beginning, due to estrangement and unfamiliarity, we can’t come to the same consensus. This caused us to have some fictions in the process and faced some problems in division of labor. But after a brief introduction about ourselves and after a deep discussion, we completed the challenge after we worked together to build the catapult with bare hands (communication skill). After this event, I felt that cooperating with strangers is an interesting thing because you never know who you are going to meet, what will happen next and it also help me to improve my soft skill. It also taught me how to tolerate with people especially when we are accomplishing a task together.
Besides that, I felt that being patience was important for me when I faced problem. When I tried to tie the rubber band, it broke due to overstretch. This caused me felt irritable because I needed repeat the process again and the cycle gone vicious. I believed that things will go easy if I being more patience. On the other hand, when I was tried to design the catapult, I thought that it was easier for me if I use Autocad to produce my prototype compared hand drawn draft. This is because throughout the Autocad process I can clearly know the structure of the modelling and it can be observe in several angle or point of view.
Relating
In fact, after knowing my event theme was built a catapult, I tried to put my effort to make a good preparation and tried to recall back my form 6 knowledge. In order to get better image of the project, I had looked for the catapult information through online and watched the videos from YouTube to get some design idea.
Furthermore, this reminds me about the lesson I had learned from form 6 which is projectile motion. Projectile motion is the motion of an object thrown or projected into the air, subject to only the acceleration of gravity. So as to make sure that our ping pong ball was able to projected into the box, we need to maximize the projection distance. To get a maximum range in projectile, angle was the most important issue compare to force that we applied. This is because when a particle is projected from the ground it will follow a curved path, before hitting the ground. How far the particle travels will depend on the speed of projection and the angle of projection. Through the calculation (million steps had been omitted), we can knew that 45° is the perfect angle for projected a maximum distance. So we adjust the height of the body of catapult in order to get the angle that we want.
Reasoning
Through this event, in addition to understanding the way to build catapult, I also learned about its history and the use in modern day.
Catapult is a device used to fling objects across vast distances or over walls with only physical force. Catapult history originates in ancient Greece, with the earliest recorded mentions in historical texts coming from the 1st century B.C. historian Diodoros, who wrote about their use in a famous siege in 397 B.C. The earliest catapults evolved from devices much like crossbows. Although early catapults were used to launch arrows, ancient engineers soon developed the technology to launch larger objects, such as stones. Catapult had not widely used in the military until medieval times.
In medieval times, catapults were used as siege weapons and designed to launch objects over castle walls. Some of these objects were what you might think of as usual military weapons. They were things like stones, arrows and other projectiles. But medieval bombardiers were more creative than that. Some used their catapults to launch flaming objects over the castle crenellations in hopes of setting the castle on fire.
Although catapults were weapons of war in medieval times and earlier, today they fall under the domain of hobbyists and war reenactors. They are also widely used in education. Sometimes they make an appearance in the corporate world to foster team building skills. Furthermore, I realized that catapult was also one of the favourite object for youngsters to undergo experiment (especially in foreign countries). Initially, I thought catapult was just a toy, but I changed my mind after knowing its history, function in previous and contribution in education field.
Reconstructing
There is a lot of funny things in this event, but sad case is I realized that I rarely used my knowledge in real life. In fact, this kind of event should encourage to every students. From my point of view, student usually learned knowledge from textbooks and exercise. This causes us lack of hand-on experience. Sometimes we maybe only understand the theory part but not for the practical. So this event was a perfect chance to let us apply our knowledge and try to brainstorming to solve problem.
I was impressed with a line in the famous Bollywood movie 3 Idiots. It said that “Salt water (urea) is a great conductor of electricity, we had studied it. But he applied it.” This line made me a meditation at that time. I felt that I shouldn’t just learning new knowledge and forget to apply it in real life. This event taught me a lesson (thinking skill).
As for my catapult, there was a lot of things that I can improve. Such as to improve its accuracy by wind the rubber band tighter. Put a piece of wood across the base of the catapult to keep it strong and add pieces of wood to it to change the trajectory angle, etc. Thanks to this event for regaining my enthusiasm for learning, and also allowed me to recall many wonderful memories. As we are now in the CMCO period, this kind of hands-on activity was ever rarer. So thanks a million and I will appreciated it.