The Project
Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who drew imaginary machines that did a small task in the most complicated way possible. This year, our STEM class used his concept to design and build our own Rube Goldberg inspired machines. Using the six simple machines in a long series of steps, our team created a project that ended with an image popping up. If you think being showed a picture is a pretty basic action, you would be right, but to go along with Rube Goldberg’s ideas we needed to make it complicated.
How We Did It
The first idea isn’t always the best idea so having a good brainstorming session was crucial. Our team decided to have a farm themed project and artistically designed it to go along with that theme. We also used art design principles such as contrast, balance, and emphasis to give our Rube Goldberg a more visually pleasing appearance. Our next step was to design our project in the form of a blueprint. When all of our ideas were clear and drawn out, it was time for us to start building.
Our group was supplied with a four foot by four foot plywood sheet, and we also had access to an abundance of other materials, as well as many tools. Over the next few weeks we put our ideas into motion. Some sections of the machine where harder to build than others and it was challenging to get them functional, but in the end we persevered and got our machine to run smoothly, most of the time.
After we we were done building, it was time to make calculations for the physics of our project. We needed to find the velocity and force of moving objects in each step of our project. To do this we would take distances, times, and masses and use formulas to find out what we needed. For example, we found the length of the first inclined plane, which was 82cm. We also found it took, on average about 1.43 seconds. Then we used the formula for velocity, change in distance over change in time, and got an average velocity of 0.57 meters/second.
Lastly we had a presentation night to show our projects to the public. Anyone who was interested was invited to come and watch our presentations and see our Rube Goldberg machines in action. We also presented to a panel of professional and student judges.
Reflection
Overall I believe doing this project was an amazing learning experience. We got more comfortable with the design process. We also became very comfortable with power tools, and strengthen all of our building skills. We were also able to practice using physics calculations in real life situations and not just on paper which was fun and helpful. This project also helped us work our our presentation and speaking ability. Last but definitely not least, our group work. In order for our project to be successful there had to be leadership and togetherness when it was time to work. And in STEM we are working together a lot and strengthening our group work skills which is very valuable. When we all came together on our project, our Rube Goldberg machine was a success.
How We Did It
The first idea isn’t always the best idea so having a good brainstorming session was crucial. Our team decided to have a farm themed project and artistically designed it to go along with that theme. We also used art design principles such as contrast, balance, and emphasis to give our Rube Goldberg a more visually pleasing appearance. Our next step was to design our project in the form of a blueprint. When all of our ideas were clear and drawn out, it was time for us to start building.
Our group was supplied with a four foot by four foot plywood sheet, and we also had access to an abundance of other materials, as well as many tools. Over the next few weeks we put our ideas into motion. Some sections of the machine where harder to build than others and it was challenging to get them functional, but in the end we persevered and got our machine to run smoothly, most of the time.
After we we were done building, it was time to make calculations for the physics of our project. We needed to find the velocity and force of moving objects in each step of our project. To do this we would take distances, times, and masses and use formulas to find out what we needed. For example, we found the length of the first inclined plane, which was 82cm. We also found it took, on average about 1.43 seconds. Then we used the formula for velocity, change in distance over change in time, and got an average velocity of 0.57 meters/second.
Lastly we had a presentation night to show our projects to the public. Anyone who was interested was invited to come and watch our presentations and see our Rube Goldberg machines in action. We also presented to a panel of professional and student judges.
Reflection
Overall I believe doing this project was an amazing learning experience. We got more comfortable with the design process. We also became very comfortable with power tools, and strengthen all of our building skills. We were also able to practice using physics calculations in real life situations and not just on paper which was fun and helpful. This project also helped us work our our presentation and speaking ability. Last but definitely not least, our group work. In order for our project to be successful there had to be leadership and togetherness when it was time to work. And in STEM we are working together a lot and strengthening our group work skills which is very valuable. When we all came together on our project, our Rube Goldberg machine was a success.