About 15 students in Jeff Stolzfus' 3D Design class had a unique afternoon at Lancaster Catholic on Wednesday. After a few weeks worth of designing and trial and error, the First Annual 3D Pumpkin Launch Contest was held inside Berger Gym.
Students were placed into teams and were instructed to use the 3D printers to build a catapult that would send miniature 3D pumpkins flying through the air to be judged on both distance and accuracy.
"It was definitely not something I thought we would be doing in school, let alone in the class," Mitch Benn '22 said. "It was definitely a lot better than taking a math test."
The course has evolved from its first year in 2017-18, where four students helped create the curriculum and dabbled in the infinite possibilities of what this class could be. Those original students probably never would have imagined a pumpkin toss, but what this year's group got out of it was truly unique.
The course is a continuation of Lancaster Catholic's emphasis on more hands-on learning. The 3D Design class falls under that category, as does the newer Project Lead the Way classes in science and in the new STEM Innovation Center.
"It brings out more of our creative side," Daryk Groff '23 said. "When we get assigned a project in a class like this, we have to make our own design for it. We have to come up with it from scratch, so it is different than just book learning. I really enjoy the more hands-on approach."
The students learned the importance of teamwork while also struggling through some failures along the way.
"Obviously, something like this, there is going to be some trial and error," Groff explained. "It was frustrating at times, but we learned a lot throughout the whole process."
The team of Groff, Rachel Kim and Steven Sun won both the distance and accuracy contests.