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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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Feb 15

Rube Goldberg #3

by mshetty26

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #3

The Building Process

I have started building based on some of the ideas that I have so far. I have five steps right now and I have some additional ideas for the next three steps. As I mentioned before, I am planning to do an eight step design.

 

For the first five steps, I begin with a marble run, where the marble moves through an assigned path. The marble then rolls across the bridge, colliding with a car. The car will then hit a ball, making the ball go down the ramp. After that the ball is going to land in a cone attached to a balance. I had to think hard about how to capture the ball, and after a few iterations came up with an idea of building a cone. That worked well!

 

The ideas for the other three steps are as follows: The ball causes the side with the cone to do down while the other side goes up (like a see-saw), this causes the spinner to spin. When the spinner spins, it knocks a ball down a ramp. At the end of the ramp, I want to place some dominos that the ball can knock over. I was thinking that maybe the last domino would be attached to a yo-yo string which knocks over another set of dominos. That last part took a lot of iterations to get working, and I was so happy when it did! I had a few fails with my machine but I learnt from them and fixed them. Some worked and some didn’t. It’s not how many times you fail, but whether you overcome failure and succeed in the end!

5th grade Science

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Feb 15

Rube Goldberg #2

by mshetty26

Rube Goldberg  #2

The Designing

I decided that my Rube Goldberg machine would do a simple task of “Recycling the cup”. I was very excited to share this plan with my family. My little brother helped me find all the materials I needed to build. We collected a ton of paper towel tubes and toilet paper tubes. I used the tubes as ramps. I also found a toy bridge, a toy parking garage, a marble run, a k’nex building set, and some balls.

 

I started sketching my ideas on paper. The process of sketching was very interesting and I learnt a lot. Some of my initial drawings which looked perfect on paper and I thought I had nailed it on the first attempt, actually did not work when I built it. It was a good learning experience for me: Think of a design, sketch it, gather materials, build it, test it, fail/ pass. If you fail, then go back to the drawing board to make iterations or make a new design!

 

I have five steps currently and some ideas for the next three steps. In all, I plan to do an eight step design. This is hard work but also a lot of fun!

 

5th grade Science

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Feb 14

Rube Goldberg #1

by mshetty26

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #1

The Decisions

From the moment Mrs. Edwards explained that we are going to make a Rube Goldberg machine, I was very excited! A part that really stood out to me was that the video of the machine was going to be posted on YouTube! I was looking forward to building my contraption.

Before I began, I had to understand what exactly was a Rube Goldberg machine. Do you know what a Rube Goldberg machine is? A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that is intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and over-complicated fashion. The expression is named after the American cartoonist, Rube Goldberg, whose cartoons often depicted such machines.

After we were assigned the project, we first had to decide if we were working independently or in a group. Initially I was leaning towards working in a group, but after thinking about it and trying to figure out what the best option was for me to make my experience the most enjoyable and educational, I decided that I would work independently. I understood that working alone would be very hard as I would have to do everything and I was okay with that. The biggest advantage of working alone for me was, that it would give me freedom to choose time according to my convenience to work on the project and i wouldn’t need to compromise on my ideas/ design. It was easy to decide where I would be doing my project. That would be the basement in my home!

I decided to start building and sketching simultaneously as that would help me with adjusting the design to make it a working model. When I started building I used materials that I already had at my house, which was mostly toys and paper towel tubes. Building the machine also helped me with sketching the design which is due on 2/12.

 

 

5th grade Science

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Dec 19

Rocketry Reflection

by mshetty26

In 5th grade we did a presentation about rocketry. We got divided up into 5 groups. There were 3 or 4 people in each group. We got to  make up names for our team. The team names were I FLY, FLYING CHEETOS ours, NASA, WALK IT LIKE I TALK IT ROCKET and THE FLYING GOATS.

 

We made a inspiration board for our rocket. We added images, quotes and facts. The images were of rockets to help us build our rocket. Our first rocket’s name was HYDRA! We named it HYDRA because we thought it would be a cool name. Our second one was named Phobos. We designed a third rocket too.  

 

For the presentation all the teams were good at their lines. The parents came to watch! I was a little scared that I would forget my lines, but luckily I remembered them. My group went first and I was really nervous! But we got through it.  All the groups were good too! For the presentation we had to talk about the engineering design process, building and designing the rocket and the reflections for our rocket. Making the presentation was really fun! 

 

 

 

     Here is my rocketry slideshow:

Here is my rocketry presentation video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLPTvfsE3D4&index=1&list=PLSS8PA6fV_dwoK9QhQobmBeRrPI9Xapom

 

 

5th grade Science

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Jun 20

3rd week of Lima Beans

by mshetty26

No sunlight (manipulated variable)

Our no sunlight beans are not doing good. They are white and unhealthy. They don’t look good either. It’s disgusting.

 

 

No Air (manipulated variable)

It is white and unhealthy but it has leafs. The leafs are not looking good. The beans are also slimy! Isn’t that disgusting?

 

 

Controlled

 

Only 1 of the lima beans are growing. It is healthy.

 

 

3rd Grade Science

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Jun 2

Seed Pods

by mshetty26

The plants are doing good. We pollinated our plants and now the plants grew seed pods!! That’s really cool. But our plant is also starting to die. But than we realized that is just how our plant is.  It is dying and then the seeds will become new plants!           

3rd Grade Science

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Mar 30

My Moon Unit Reflecion

by mshetty26

My moon blog was cool. We got to see the phases of the moon! In class a science teacher Mrs. Kiley came in to talk about the moon. We did different experiments! It was casting a shadow, seeing the phases with a flashlight and making the sun, moon and earth.

Fun Fact:One side of the moon always gets hit by asteroids and the other side doesn’t get hit.

The blogging was fun! It takes 4 weeks for the moon to go around the earth. The moon blogging ended sadly. Your going to have so much fun moon blogging.

 

3rd Grade Science

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