Summer Science Camp - Angry Birds

By Jessica Lewis

High school students kicked off their last day of a week-long science camp at the University of Toronto by making a real-life version of the Angry Birds App to launch plush toys out of an air cannon at a makeshift obstacle on the McLennan Physical Labs’ patio.

The Angry Birds experiment taught the students to think like physicists about projectile motion, says professor Sabine Stanley. “They learned the physics laws and equations they needed in order to do the experiment, so the fact that they actually got the birds to land in the right location was the physics that they learned today.” She added, “Then they saw how real life things like wind affected it. They did excellent work with set up, calculating and firing.”

The students tested out their formulas and expectations on a computer program before launching the real things. St. Michael’s College School student Domenic Marchese, said the experiment “was fun, interactive and hands on.”

Summer Science Camp ran from August 13 to 17, immersing high school students in mathematics, chemistry, physics, computer science, earth sciences and astronomy and astrophysics. One of the head organizers of Summer Science Camp, Dr. Kausik Das, hopes that the enthusiasm for this camp will help them to not only expand their programming but also bring people closer to science education and encourage the students to consider U of T. “We need this to attract young minds, because innovation is key,” he says.

(photos by Diana Tyszko)

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Physics professor Sabine Stanley helps a student push an Angry Birds plush toy into the air cannon.

Students get excited to use the air cannon to launch Angry Birds plush toys. In the original game, it’s a slingshot.

Students collaborate on calculations in order to properly get the Angry Birds plush toy to hit the obstacle across the patio.

Students prepare to launch an Angry Birds plush toy across the McLennan Physical Labs’ patio while others build the obstacle for it to hit.

A student works on calculations to get the right angle and velocity in order for the toy to knock down the obstacle.

Students build an obstacle with hopes that an Angry Birds plush toy will knock it down.

Angry Birds plush toys await their fate on the McLennan Physical Labs’ patio.

The obstacle and pig plush toys await impact.

The team’s launch command was “Fire in the hole!”