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Mar 7

Rube Goldberg #4

by mshetty26

Rube Goldberg Post #4

Reflecting On Working Alone

 

I have been thinking about my decision to work independently, and overall I think it was a good decision.  As I reflect on the pros and cons of working alone, I think there are a lot more pros than cons.

 

Thinking back to the beginning of the project, when I was coming up with ideas, I enjoyed the freedom of picking my own ideas.



I wanted the final step to be meaningful to me.  I have recently been inspired by the idea of recycling, and thought that it would be great if I could combine my Rube Goldberg project with a recycling theme. I decided that the final step would be recycling a cup, and was happy with my choice.  

 

I also had fun designing the other steps, but sometimes wonder if I could have come up with even better ideas if I was working with others. During the building and testing, I felt like I could use some extra hands!  However, I also felt a great sense of accomplishment when I saw that I was able to make my designs actually work.  I feel good that I understand every little piece of my project from design to building. It probably took longer than it may have taken if done in a group, but I feel like it was totally worth the time and effort!  



Working alone also taught me the importance of time management and not waiting till the last minute. During my sketch submission, I waited until the last minute and had to stay up late to get everything done. I learned to manage my time better for the building and testing and am making good progress. It has been easy to work on my own schedule without having to find time slots that work for a group.

 

I have been enjoying this project so far, and look forward to successfully completing it.

 

5th grade Science

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Mar 7

Rube Goldberg #5

by mshetty26

 

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #5

Testing the design

Testing the Rube Goldberg machine was both fun and stressful!  Though I was testing each step of my design when I was creating the sketch, I had to make a few changes when I put everything together.

The biggest change I made was redesigning the second to last step, which was originally designed to be a yo-yo knocking over a few dominoes which tips the cup into the recycling bin.  This step looked good on paper and worked when I tested it separately as I was sketching it out. But I realized that it did not work consistently when it was connected to the previous step.  I thought of replacing the yo-yo with a bell. The idea was that the ball would roll into the bell, and the momentum would transfer from the bell to the dominos.



This was also fun, because the bell rings before knocking the dominoes.  It’s like a reminder, “Remember to recycle!”

I had also not thought through how all the steps would flow together.  Thinking about how the various pieces should be arranged was challenging.  My aha moment was to use gravity help me! I started with the last step, which was the recycle bin on the floor, and arranged each previous step to be slightly higher.  This way, the initial step was at the highest point, and the momentum from the marble would keep increasing.

I also had a few challenges with the initial step of the marble rolling on the bridge to knock over the car.  The bridge was not smooth and had a couple of deep ridges.

I had to go through 4-5 cars to get the car with the right size wheels.  

The marble also would not roll smoothly over the bridge. I came up with the idea of placing dominos on the bridge so that the marble could roll over the smooth dominoes.


That worked well!

The ball would also keep rolling off the ramp, and I wasn’t sure how to fix that.  

I tried a few other balls, and finally a ball which was less bouncy was the answer.  This ball stayed on the ramp and fell into the cone as I had designed.

Overall, I had 14 fails and then success on the 15th try! I was so happy!

5th grade Science

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Mar 7

Rube Goldberg #6

by mshetty26

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #6

The Final Reflection

While building the Rube Goldberg machine, I learnt a few science-related lessons and also a few real world lessons.

The process of designing, sketching and building was a great learning experience. I found that what you sketch on paper does not always work in reality. For example, I thought that a car moving on a bridge would be really cool, and it looked like it would work when I sketched it out. But I found that my bridge was not designed for cars (it was part of a train set!), and had tracks on it. The car that I picked had wheels that were smaller that the tracks, so I had to find a car with bigger wheels for it to work. I also saw that a marble rolls better on a smooth surface than a rough one (this is because of friction). I was also able to see how to use gravity to move different objects. These were some of the many science-related lessons that I learnt.


I also learnt is that if something doesn’t work, keep trying, and try new things. When I was building the machine, the second to last step with the yo-yo didn’t work and I was stuck on how to make it better. Then I thought, let me try something totally new! I made a new design using a bell and dominos, and it worked! I learnt that there may not be success on the first try, this learning experience can also be applied to life. I also learnt to manage my time and not wait till the last day to get my machine working. These were some of the many real world lessons that I learnt.

Overall, my experience with Rube Goldberg was awesome and I really loved all aspects of the project (thinking of ideas, designing, sketching, building, testing, re-building, re-testing, and the successful conclusion).  The project was always fun but sometimes it got a little complicated. When I had success in making the complicated steps work, I felt really proud of myself. The Rube Goldberg project has been a wonderful and memorable experience for me.

 

Here is a link to my Rube Goldberg machine:

Maya’s Rube Goldberg Project

 

Here is a photo of my sketch:

5th grade Science

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