Today we started building the machine! We got through roughly half of the steps. I think that we can add more steps to make it more exciting, but on the other hand, we’re not done yet and it won’t look the same after it’s done. We changed our plan a little and added a little bit more Legos. We figured out that the ball was going off the Lego stairs and we needed to add more Legos to keep it in place. I’m very proud that we did that because if we didn’t, our ball would have had more of a chance of falling off course than when we added the Legos. We also supported the car by putting it up on Legos and we changed the plan a little by putting stairs leading up to the car. That made us put the Jenga blocks on the stairs so that they would knock down the car, so that the car would knock down the pole, e.t.c. Some thoughts I have on this is that we might need to change our machine a little more and put a little more support for the objects (probably more Legos involved in the process). I can’t wait to finish the process of building the machine so that we can look in awe at our beauty!

Yesterday, Noy came over to do some of the Rube Goldberg. We did the see saw and I think that it was done well. We attached some Legos together. then we taped together two layers of cardboard. I realized that I have concerns about the see saw because when it flips the coin, the coin goes to the side or to the back. We were definitely not going to have our Rube Goldberg built sideways! But that is a possibility… We haven’t started building anything else yet so we should get started on that soon. I also think that maybe we should have a backup plan in case our original plan won’t work out. I learned that we’ll probably be needing more support for the seesaw as I said before which would lead me to the fact that we would probably be needing more Legos for support.

I tend to get very stressed about things. I get worried that things won’t work out. I also have some worries about our plan for the project. I think that the car would not have enough force to knock down the tower. We could use something else on wheels that’s slightly heavier or we could use lighter material for the tower. I also feel like we should add more Legos for the first step because the ball might go off the ramp and that wouldn’t work out since the ball is what makes the whole machine work. We will probably be needing more Legos than we thought we would for the process anyway.

I am partners with Noy for our Rube Goldberg project. A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine including chain reactions. For example, let’s say that you wanted to knock down a bottle. The machine would include different materials in order to accomplish that goal. Let’s say that you have a bunch of dominoes, that get knocked down by a ball, which gets pushed by another bunch of dominoes, e.t.c. That is what Noy and I are doing. I feel like we are going to have lots of fun…

We had a meeting to discuss and sketch our plans for the project. First, we decided what to include in our project. Then, we decided to draw out our plans. This took an EXTREMELY large amount of time because Noy drew the plan but we then saw that it was a little bit messy. Therefore, I redid the plans but forgot a step! Then, Noy had to redo the plans AGAIN! This was the worst part in my opinion because we wasted time making two plans that were going to waste and doing our plan THREE TIMES!!! At least we made good plans! Here is our sketch:

http://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-sJlbTwKOKUY3plR0hWZ1RZM3dMaHlMM1ByYXpjV2ktbXRz/view

Some of my goals are that we should do our best for the whole project. We should also try not to waste time. I know that we will have fails in this process and that is how we will have fun!