STEMing for Kids: Snowball Launcher

By: Christine Leavitt

For kids, the winter season often includes an increase in sugary treats, holiday parties, less time outside, and a school break. This combination is often a recipe for disaster, disorder, and stressed parents. If your kids have extra energy, constructing a snowball launcher offers a perfect outlet for them and provides a fun opportunity to have an epic (and safe) battle with siblings and friends. Snowball launchers are easy to make, and children will learn Newton’s three laws of motion in the process. Little Bins for Little Hands has instructions, images, and videos detailing how to make a simple snowball launcher in addition to the science behind such contraption.

The following materials are needed to create a snowball launcher:

1. Disposable plastic cup

2. Balloons

3. Hot glue gun and glue sticks (or strong tape, such as duct tape)

4. Balls that can be launched (this can include Styrofoam balls, ping-pong balls, cotton balls, crumpled paper balls, etc.)

5. Scissors

To make your snowball launcher, cut the bottom off of your plastic cup. Make sure that the rim of the cup is fully intact, as the strength of the rim prevents the cup from folding in on itself.

Next, tie a knot at the end of the balloon as if you had filled it with air (although leave the balloon empty). Cut off the top of the balloon and leave the knot that you just tied at the other end of the balloon intact.

The last step is to stretch the cut portion of the balloon around the bottom portion of the cup that you cut off. The balloon will need to be glued or taped so that it is very secure.

Once dry (if glued), your children will be able to catapult balls of different sizes, shapes, and compositions through placing a ball in the cup, pulling back on the knot, and releasing the balloon while continuing to hold the cup. Your children can also experiment to see what types of of balls launch the farthest.

When discussing the science behind the snowball launcher, which includes a lot of physics, please see the following excerpt describing Newton’s three laws of motion from Little Bins for Little Hands website:

The first law of motion states that an object will remain at rest until a force is placed on it. Our snowball isn’t launching by itself, so we need to create a force! That force is the balloon. Does pulling the balloon further create more force?

The second law says that a mass (like the styrofoam snowball) will accelerate when a force is placed on it. Here the force is the balloon being pulled back and released. Testing different objects of different weights might result in different acceleration rates!

Now, the third law tells us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, the force created by the stretched balloon pushes the object away. The force pushing the ball out is equal to the force pushing the ball back. Forces are found in pairs, the balloon, and the ball here (please see https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/make-snowball-launcher-winter-stem-physics/).

Written by:

Christine Leavitt

Graduate Research Assistant

Women and Gender Studies