Slingshot Range for Children and Adults with Disabilities

  • Location
    Maple Lake, Minnesota
  • Status
    Active

The Problem

Camp Courage, who we lease our school from, wants to have a working slingshot range for their campers up and running by the end of May. We will use recycled and upcycled materials as much as possible to create a slingshot range given specifications from camp. It interested us because it would be used by multiple people with varying abilities.

Our Plan

Students are designing and building a 8 foot by 20 foot slingshot range. The camp coordinator and my (Mason's) advisor came up with the idea, and I needed a 100 hour sophomore project. I had to download Google Sketch Up and teach myself how to use it. I got a free student version of Sketch Up, and I spent 5 hours drawing a rough sketch. The details will take about 3 more hours. The project will impact 1500 campers each summer and up to 3000 conference and retreat goers. Camp asked that the slingshot range have an Old West design of three building fronts: jail, saloon, and general store. The features are to be authentic to the 1870's. There are 9 people on the project. I began working on it by myself, another student joined in, and students kept joining. There are multiple roles within the team. Two younger students are assigned to each storefront. I give advice to other members if something would be good as a prop. I plan weekly meetings with the activities director from camp. After the design phase, the other project leader and I came up with the supply list. That is where the project is at right now (4/4/16). Next, we will finish up details such as how we are going to paint it so that when the materials get here, we will go straight into the designs. We are still looking for recycled and upcycled materials such as doors and windows. The project will do a number of things, the ammunition is going to be dog food since dog food is biodegradable. That means the targets need to be more sensitive. The springs will need to have lighter tension so that the metal plate can go down. The dog food and slingshots will be stored in troughs. The targets will need to be varying depths and heights for people who may be in wheelchairs.

Themes Addressed

  • term icon
    Community
  • term icon
    Recycle

The Benefit

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