Our Youth

Young TMLA Engineers Smash

November 16, 2016
Young women from the Engineering Program at The Mary Louis Academy, Jamaica Estates, were invited to custom build a trebuchet to take part in the Queens Botanical Garden’s 2016 Pumpkin Smash. The students were responsible for the concept, design and actual construction of the medieval siege engine, which required mathematical calculations and formulas to determine weights, counterbalance and velocity. The Pumpkin Smash is an annual event where children and adults bring their “retired” Halloween pumpkins and gourds to be smashed via a trebuchet. Once the event is finished the NYC Compost Project turns the smashed pumpkins into compost for city parks and green spaces.
Young women from the Engineering Program at The Mary Louis Academy, Jamaica Estates, were invited to custom build a trebuchet to take part in the Queens Botanical Garden’s 2016 Pumpkin Smash. The students were responsible for the concept, design and actual construction of the medieval siege engine, which required mathematical calculations and formulas to determine weights, counterbalance and velocity. The Pumpkin Smash is an annual event where children and adults bring their “retired” Halloween pumpkins and gourds to be smashed via a trebuchet. Once the event is finished the NYC Compost Project turns the smashed pumpkins into compost for city parks and green spaces.