For the past four years, WJ has celebrated “Bad Day to be a Pumpkin” around Halloween. During this year’s celebration, students from Tech Ed classes and the Engineering Club worked together to build massive catapults that launched pumpkins and candy.

“The atmosphere was actually pretty good, and the catapult worked well,” said sophomore Tech Ed student Cody Chatham.  “It was really exciting.”

Tech Ed teacher Kevin Daney was glad to see the amount of engineering that took place for this year’s Oct. 30 event.

“This year had a lot of variety with the Engineering Club’s crossbow and [Tech Ed teacher Tom] Martin’s class’s cannon,” said Daney.

Every year the catapults built are an upgrade from the previous year. This year, the Engineering Club tried a spinning arm. As the object gets spun over and over again, the arm picks up speed and launches the object farther. Unlike previous years when the catapults used elastic rubber bands, the crossbow catapult seemed very strong. However, Daney made sure such new technology was not harmful.

“I didn’t want to pull it back too strong because it would’ve been dangerous,” he said. “I wanted to avoid the catapult breaking and wood flying.”

Although the crossbow catapult wasn’t pushed to its full limit, it was capable of launching a pumpkin and candy about 10 to 20 feet. Martin’s class’s cannon was able to launch its pumpkin 100 yards.

“It was a really fun team-building experience, because everyone is part of the process,” said sophomore Tech Ed student Sam Cummins.

Daney enjoys seeing his students become better engineers while under a time constraint.

“It’s a learning experience,” he said. “Students get to learn how to work under pressure in a group along with the excitement of a big project.”