High school teams work on their designs.

It was a fascinating day. Hundreds of high school students from across Iowa gathered for a fun day of activities and competition.  The students were divided into teams and each team was guided by a Graceland student or professor from the business and agriculture departments.

This article was published November 20, 2025 in the Lamoni Chronicle. See the final image below.

A student works on a ping pong ball launcher.

Each design team was given a set amount of “money”. They used the money to buy supplies (craft sticks, rubber bands, and plastic spoons) to build ping-pong ball launchers.

Working on designs.

A lot of testing went on. Some launchers could toss a ping-pong ball 20-30 feet, and some only 2-3 feet. The power had to come from the rubber bands. You were not allowed to just throw a ping-pong ball with a spoon.

Graceland faculty and students checked out the designs created by the high school teams.

Teams would go back to the drawing board to design better launchers.

Looking online for a design.

Any team could go to the internet and look for better designs. Sometimes that meant spending more of their precious money on additional supplies.

Several designs created by one of the teams.

Some designs were simple with not many parts. Some were more complex, took a lot of parts, cost more money, and looked like elaborate medieval catapults. Complexity was not necessarily a key to success.

A student discusses design options with her team.

In the afternoon, teams of Ag students came in with set amounts of “money” to buy the ping-pong ball launchers they liked the best.

A student tests one of his team’s designs.

Design teams were pitching their work. The Ag teams wanted to see how well the launchers worked before they spent their money, so the design teams were doing demos. The money from launcher sales, minus the cost of supplies, determined each design team’s profit. The design teams with the most profits were the winners.

Graceland faculty member Max Pitt, addresses the award ceremony assembly.

The day ended with an awards ceremony. The winners were announced and received award certificates.

Team 3 was the winning Finance Award team.

Everyone went home with a Graceland shirt.  It was a great day filled with fun and excitement.

Team 19 was the winning Marketing Award team.

The article as it was printed in the Lamoni Chronicle, November 20, 2025.