Yesterday in class, we had a sketch museum. We rotated around the classroom looking at other groups’ sketches and writing on post-its what we think they can work on and what we really liked about them. I really enjoyed seeing other people’s work. A lot of people had at least one simple machine in their sketch. Most people used an inclined plane. Inclined planes are probably the easiest simple machine to use in a Rube Goldberg, so that’s probably why a lot of groups are using it. I also saw that most of the groups used dominoes. Maybe it’s because dominoes falling is a pretty cool effect. They fall fast and make a kind of original sound.
I saw one sketch that had a step similar to one of ours, which is probably our most complicated step. That step is to make a computer call a phone by making something hit the enter button on the computer. The phone’s vibration makes it slide down a mini ramp and knock down dominoes which then set off something else. The other group’s Rube Goldberg starts out by them calling a phone which vibrates down a ramp and sets off something else. I thought the sketch museum was great and I really want to see how everyone’s machines turn out.