Tinker toys. A pink plastic cap. A spoon. A few rubber bands. Hardly the tools of the trade for engineering majors — but pretty useful when the assignment is to build a catapult for under 10 bucks that can precisely hurl a tiny soccer ball bean bag.

Left, (standing) Wils Cheng, Scott Hamilton, John Ernst, (kneeling) Erik Gonzalez, Giampiero Frischi and David Figueroa — watch theirs soar toward the target.

“This gives the freshmen a design task at a level where they can succeed,” instructor Becky Biddle said. “They do all the equations and planning in teams before-hand, and it ends up giving them an enjoyable hands-on experience.”