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Football launcher: Engineering, angles, and arcade games - oh my!

  • Article

Drawing of Patrick Mahomes.

Get ready to launch into learning with the Football Launcher activity kit! In this exciting course, students explore geometry and the engineering design process as they build their own football launcher and goal posts. Along the way, they dive into the physics of angles, velocity, and distance, and create their own custom arcade game using Microsoft MakeCode Arcade.

  • Audience: Elementary school students
  • Length: Five one-hour modules

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

  • Understand the engineering design process and how to apply it
  • Explore the relationship between angles, speed, velocity, and distance
  • Discover career opportunities in sports beyond the field
  • Learn basic programming structures and create a personalized game
  • Build and enhance an arcade game where they aim to hit moving targets

Instructor downloads

Why take this course?

This course blends hands-on engineering, math, and game development in an exciting way that connects real-world applications to learning. Students gain practical skills in designing, testing, and coding, all while having a blast creating their own arcade games!

Ready to design, launch, and code? Let's hit the target!

Screenshot of football launcher activity.