Remake Learning Days festival kicks off with thousands of kid-designed catapults

To kick off Remake Learning Days, which begins May 4, students across Pennsylvania all fired ping pong balls from catapults they designed.

At Duquesne K-8, the second graders created all kinds of catapults using items like rubber bands, spoons, popsicle sticks and straws. After testing them out, with ping pong balls flying, the students compared what worked and what didn’t over Zoom with students from their partner school — Hosack Elementary in the North Allegheny School District.

Duquesne second grade teacher, Erica Slobodnik, was impressed by the skills the students used for the project.

“They were investigative with trying to think of how they would build it,” Slobodnik says. “They were artistic, obviously trying to be creative with how they built it. They were social, trying to help each other if they were struggling with how to build it. They were enterprising and sometimes a leader as far as showing the other district what they had made.”

Check out their hard work here:

This is just one example of the kinds of things kids and families can do and learn during Remake Learning Days, which runs this year from May 4 through May 23.

There are more than 200 events happening around our region over that time. You can search through the full list of what’s happening at a school, library or community center near you right here.