Students at Keystone Prep in Odessa spent a month building medieval siege engines, then used them to hurl pumpkins across campus.

The Keystone Pumpkin Chuckin Challenge had students in the Ancient and World History classes compete to see whose trebuchet could launch a pumpkin the farthest, the Laker Lutz News reported. The winning class sent a five-pound pumpkin 47 feet.

Social studies teacher Zeke Changuris led the month-long project. Students designed and constructed functional trebuchets, counterweight-based siege engines historically used to breach castle walls, according to the Laker Lutz News. The work blended history, physics and practical carpentry.

Changuris told the Laker Lutz News the school aims to give students hands-on learning across the curriculum. A hands-on history project poses challenges, he said, but "finding ways to make learning more than about vocabulary and dates is a challenge we as teachers appreciate."

Keystone Prep is a private high school that serves students with learning differences. The school's website describes three project-based magnet tracks.

Students moved through research, design and construction before the launch-day competition.

Benji DeManche, a ninth-grader, said the project stuck with him. He told the Laker Lutz News he would love to do it again next year. "Watching the pumpkins crash down was great," DeManche said.