Bridekirk Dovenby CE Primary SchoolWork Together, Aim High, Shine Bright
Design & Technology Competition 2022
A team of four pupils from Year 6 attended a competition run by Cockermouth Rotary.
The pupils were given a kit containing all the pieces to make a type of catapult called a mangonel - sometimes referred to as a traction trebuchet which was used in Ancient China to throw stones.
They had to use a hammer to fit the wood together with dowels and work out top from bottom and left from right.
Our team did really well putting it together - solid teamwork and their final constructed mangonel worked. Then disaster struck! A bit of over tightening and a dowel broke in the last 5 minutes. It was fudged with a screw but they weren’t able to tighten it as much. Out of the 8 teams, only 3 managed to build a working mangonel and our team came a very respectable third!
The children then used their completed mangonel to, in catapult style, fire some Play Dough across the school hall.
The play dough went 45 and 70cm.
Thank you to Cockermouth Rotary for organising this event and facilitating the opportunity to work alongside other local schools.
