[VIDEO] Quaker Hill Elementary School Gets Medieval

It's not every day that an elementary school uses a Medieval weapon to launch watermelons the length of a playground. But on Wednesday, much to the delight of the students who gathered to watch, that's exactly what happened at Quaker Hill Elementary School. 

Matthew Guarraia's 5th grade students spent the past three months constructing a one-third scale medieval trebuchet. 

"It's four stories high and can effortlessly hurl 20 lb watermelons the length of the school yard," Guarraia said. 

At least, that was the theory—and on Wednesday, they set about testing it.      

Guarraia is famous for coming up with creative class projects that, in previous years, have included making musical instruments out of unusual materials and giving a concert and building a Nascar vehicle. 

Inspiration can come from anywhere and this year's project was inspired by his student Anna Guido.

"I was flinging tomatoes off spoons in the cafeteria," Anna said, with perhaps more pride than she ought to given that she actually got in trouble for that. 

According to his students, "Mr. G." responded with, "Think that's a weapon? We'll build a Medieval trebuchet!" 

A Teachable Moment

As a teaching tool, this project had everything. 

"It required math, reading, writing, research, science, and social studies," Guarraia said. "The kids designed 100 percent of it! And then of course there was the construction. Kids actually did 80 percent of all the construction—hammering, sawing, screwing, measuring, etc."   

Students were eager to see how their project would work. They all had various theories ahead of time as to how far the melons would fly and whether heavier objects would travel farther. A number of them also had serious doubts as to whether it would work at all. 

"He did tell us it might collapse," said Sonia Magano, 10. "I think it's good that it works, because we worked really hard on it. It's really big and exciting."

The farthest any of the melons traveled was 279 feet. The heaviest projectile they fired weighed 650 pounds. That, however, proved to be too much for the trebuchet, which snapped under the weight of the final load. Still, it was definitely a way to end with a bang.