Build Your Own Catapult

About Liberty Science Center

Liberty Science Center's mission is to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers and excite learners of all ages about the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology.

LSC is a 300,000-square-foot learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. The Science Center houses 12 museum exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, live simulcast surgeries, hurricane- and tornado-force wind simulators, K-12 classrooms and labs, teacher-development programs, and the Western Hemisphere's biggest planetarium—the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium and LSC Giant Dome Theater. More than 750,000 students, teachers, and parents visit Liberty Science Center each year, and tens of thousands more participate in the Center's off-site and online programs.

About the class

Simple machines can make work — and our day-to-day lives — easier. This live class is your chance to make a machine of your very own! We'll learn about the various types of simple machines and then combine them to build a catapult from scratch. We'll also experiment with 3D design in an open-source software that's used to create, make, and test your problem-solving skills!

Meet your instructors, Rosa and Alejandro.

Rosa Catala-Steidle is the Director, STEM Innovation at Liberty Science Center. Ms. Catala began her career in formal education as a bilingual kindergarten teacher in New York City. While teaching, she saw the incredible impact informal educational experiences could have on students and joined Liberty Science Center in 2002. She holds a B.S. in Early Childhood Education with an Environmental Studies concentration from SUNY Geneseo.

Alejandro Melendez is a Distance Learning Specialist at Liberty Science Center. Mr. Melendez facilitates both the Live From Surgery program and the STEM virtual programs. He is also able to translate this program into Spanish. He holds a B.S. in Biology with proficiency in Medical Spanish from the University of Scranton.