The catapult project: an innovative approach for learning statistical design of experiments

This article illustrates the use of a catapult as an innovative teaching tool for enhancing the understanding of design of experiments (DOE) in a classroom environment. This device can be adopted to simulate the design of a real-life product using the 2/sup K/ factorial design and 2/sup K/ factorial design with centre points. It is an effective method to introduce the fundamental concepts of experimental design. Experimental data collected from the catapult is analyzed to determine the key factors that affect the distance traveled by the projectile.