Easter Bunny Trap

With Easter approaching soon in The Principles of Tech Science at school as a group, Katherine Vega, Valeria Gonzalez, Christian Servin, and Donavan Faneros were all presented with the challenge to construct the best and safest effective Bunny trap. In order to do this, we need to use 3 different types of Simple Machines to safely catch the Bunny in time for Easter.

It took a lot of brainstorming and re-building in order to get the perfect build that functions properly, safely, and effectively but it was all worth it in the end and hopefully you will follow along with us and build your own Bunny Trap to catch one with us!

In this Instructable, we are going to share our progress, information, and tools that we used to get the perfect functioning Bunny Trap for you to make at home too :)!

Tools :

- Cardboard Box

- String

- 1st Class Lever

- 2nd Class Lever

- Scissors

- Duct Tape/ Regular tape

- Popsicle Sticks

- Homemade Bunny

- Cotton Ball

- Water Bottle

- Construction Paper

- Carrots

- Glue Gun

- Elmer's Glue

The base for the entire Bunny Trap is going to be the box we need to capture the bunny in. This means we need to have a sturdy box able to entrap the bunny and keep it in there without harming it. There are two ways to get the box, we can either get 4 pieces of cardboard and tape them together or get a pre-made box and just tape the sides for extra reinforcement. For the sake of this Instructable, we will be using a pre-made box. Here's how to reinforce the box -

1. Make sure the box is closed and place one piece of Duct tape on each opening.

2. Choose the flattest surface for the top of the box, a false floor, and 1st class lever

Once you have the flattest side of the box, we will begin by cutting the false floor out.

The False Floor

1. Place the box on a flat surface and make sure the longer sides are horizontal to the surface

2. Make an incision 7 inches wide (left to right) and 10 1/2 inches long (up and down)

3. Also make sure to leave approximately 1 inch of space from the edge of the box longways (up and down)

OPTION 4. May alter measurements to your needs depending on different sizes of boxes but still ensure there is 1 inch left longways

The Inclined Plane

For the Inclined plane, it is a simple cut. All you will need is a pretty big piece of scrap cardboard.

1. Using a piece of cardboard cut out a vertical cut of 15.5 inches and a horizontal connected cut of 9.4 inches

Set this piece aside until later

Next for the false floor to work we need to create a lever that will work with the bunny's weight to trap it. In order to make the lever, you will need that piece you previously cut out for the false floor and another piece of cardboard a bit smaller.

1. Get a similar piece and bend it in half

2. Once in half place the false floor on top and connect both with a rubber band

3. For stability use a piece of duct tape and connect one side of the fulcrum to the other

In doing so you are creating the lever with the bent cardboard as a fulcrum for the lever to work. Once done set this apart to place in the box together

Once you have the levers you are ready to put the false floor and the box together.

1. Insert the 1st class lever into the hole cutout we made at the beginning, the first picture above is how it should look.

2. Get the 2nd class lever and cut a hole at the top and a hole in the middle cut out of the first lever

3. Cut out a 10-inch piece of string and tie one side around each hole

4. Get 4 popsicle sticks, glue them together, and tape them halfway down to the side of the box where the 2nd class lever is to add extra support

This will allow the 2nd class lever to go down when the second lever goes down too, trapping the bunny in the box.

As bait for the bunnies, we will be making carrots out of orange and green construction paper.

1. Get orange construction paper 4 inches by 4 inches

2. Roll the paper at an angle to get the body carrot shape and glue it closed

3. Get green construction paper a green strip of paper and fold it in half until you cannot anymore

4. Once folded cut even, make even cuts longways

5. Once done cutting unfold the paper all the way and it should look like grass

6. Once it is unfolded roll up the bottom uncut pieces evenly to give it the fluffy leaf effect and glue it shut

Once you have both pieces you can put cotton in the carrot to fill it in and glue the leaf part to the carrot

(OPT) Once all done and glued together you can use a marker and draw unequal short lines all over the carrot to give it the right effect.

In order to test out the bunny trap, we can either build a bunny or get a stuffed bunny heavy enough to trigger the weight platform. If you are making your own bunny we will need a water bottle, pink and white construction paper, a cotton ball, a sharpie, and glue.

1. Cut out 2 oval shapes with a point at the top from white construction paper

2. Cut out another 2 oval shapes with a point at the top a bit smaller than the two first ovals

3. Take one white oval and place a pink oval on it to create the ear

4. Repeat step 3 to create the other ear

5. Fold the bottom of the ears a bit to make a flat surface and glue them to the cap of the water bottle

6. Grab a cotton ball and glue it to the back of the water bottle towards the bottom

7. Use the sharpie to draw eyes and draw a mouth

8. Empty the water bottle halfway and seal it tightly again

Once you've done all of this you now have your bunny and are ready to test out the bunny trap on your own!

The last step is to enjoy yourself and the project you just created and test it out!!!

We all hope you guys had as much fun as we did in creating and using this project. Thank You!