The purpose of the physics mousetrap project was to teach students about energy transfers, potential and kinetic energy, friction between wheels and the ground as well as friction between the wheels and the axles.

“This project taught me about energy transfers,” junior Zander Sheffield said. “How axels of a car cause rotational energy and how all of Newton’s laws apply to a car.”

The project was time consuming for the students. It took lots of planning to complete the cars. Students were only allowed a standard mousetrap, wood, CDs and string.

“It took about an hour to build and another hour to finish the video,” junior Skylar Knitowski said. “My partner and I planned as we went until we had our final idea.”

Students believed the learning aspects like energy transfers as well as potential and kinetic energy were not too difficult. The only thing that bothered the students was that the car took awhile to build.  

“The project was not very difficult,” junior Valentina Sequera said. “Understanding the objectives were easy, but building the car took multiple hours which made it difficult.”

Students tested their cars on Monday and Tuesday. Their cars had to travel two meters to get full credit on the project.

“My favorite part about the project was test day,” junior Drew Nelson said. “It gave me and my partner a good feeling when we saw our car pass the two meter mark.”