Helena High drafting students launch catapult projects as final exam

Helena High drafting students closed out the school year by designing, building and refining catapults that had to pass a final test as much as a class project. The assignment stretched across seven weeks and asked students to work within tight limits: the launch mechanism had to run on rubber bands, and the finished design had to fit inside a one-by-one-inch square.

That small footprint pushed students to think like engineers instead of hobbyists. Every choice mattered, from material selection and scale to how well a design could be revised after a failure. If a catapult broke, students had to troubleshoot, rebuild and try again, a process that mirrored the kind of problem-solving employers look for in drafting rooms, machine shops and construction offices across Helena and Lewis and Clark County.

Jake Spearson, the Helena High drafting and welding teacher behind the project, has built his classroom around that kind of hands-on learning. The final exam was less about a written test than about showing students can plan, test and improve a design under pressure. That approach reflects the wider career and technical education pipeline, where students learn by doing and build habits that translate into internships, apprenticeships, trades, engineering programs and jobs with local firms.

For senior Austin Rowe, the project carried a personal edge. His last assignment at Helena High felt like an upgraded version of the catapult he made as a freshman, a detail that gave the end-of-year challenge a sense of continuity and growth. The classroom project became a visible marker of how much a student can advance over four years, not just in technical skill but in confidence when a design does not work the first time.

Helena High has seen this kind of culminating project before. In 2019, Spearson’s drafting and welding students ended the course with a 3-D printing challenge, and in May 2024 Helena High and Capital High AP Physics students built trebuchets, catapults and ballistae for their final exam. Those projects show a consistent emphasis on project-based learning in Helena schools, where students are asked to solve real design problems instead of simply memorizing concepts.

The catapult project also fits into a larger moment for Helena High. Helena Public Schools has already passed a $240 million bond for a new high school, with plans for the reimagined campus to break ground this summer and open to students by fall 2028. As the building itself is set to change, the drafting room offers a clear example of the kind of learning the district says it wants to keep in place: practical, hands-on and closely tied to the skills that can carry students into the workforce.