Me & my class had to make rube goldberg machines. A rube goldberg machine is an overly complicated machine designed to do a simple task. The project was overall really fun but challenging and frustrating at times. We had a few requirements for the project like we had to have at least eight steps and three simple machines included in our contraption. In my machine I had ten steps and I used three simple machines such as a wheel and axle, a lever and an inclined plane. In this essay I will be telling you about the final steps of my project process.

When we first started the project I was a bit worried because almost everyone seemed to know exactly what they were going to do but I had no idea. It took me a few days to think but I ended up choosing to make my machine bring me a snack. Although we had many resources I found former students’ videos the most helpful because it set the expectation for me, in a good way so it didn’t make me pressured to do a major machine like an adult. My friends and my parents also helped me brainstorm ideas about what I should make my machine do. I think the research and figuring out what to do my project on was a really hard step.

My final sketch didn’t end up being that different from my first one, I mainly just switched the placements of a few items. In my first sketch, the car hit the cardboard roll, which hit a golf ball to then knock down the dominos, but in my final sketch I made the car hit the dominos, hitting the golf ball, then hitting the cardboard roll. Between my first and final change I definitely made tons of versions of my project until I found the best one which was the one in my final sketch. Originally I wanted the last step to include a pulley to be like a zipline sorta thing to bring me my snack but I ended up using a car going down a ramp to bring me it. The last step was the hardest to figure out because after i figured out making a pulley zipline thing was way too complicated I wanted a domino to turn on a battery powered toy car but that clearly wasn’t going to work so I thought of maybe turning on the car and having something prevent it from moving then having my machine remove that thing preventing it from moving so it could move and push the other car carrying the snack. I ended up having a cardboard roll container push the car making it move. 

Making the video was probably the easiest step of the project. I shot the video of my contraptions on many devices from many different angles so the only sort of tricky thing was cutting them and lining them up perfectly so it would look good but it only ended up taking me like five minutes. Ms.Edwards gave us a script to use so we could organize and plan the structure of our video, I found that really helpful. I really liked making my video. Some of my classmates had amazing contraptions & videos. I really liked getting to see everyones completed project.

Overall  I really liked this project. It was really fun, challenging and it taught me to never give up.

Heres a link of my finished project:                                  Heres my final sketch:

https://youtu.be/uNBJUjZjyds

A few weeks ago Ms.Edwards told us we would be making a Rube Goldberg machine, I had no absolute idea about what it was but after watching the videos of some rube goldberg machines I knew this would be a cool project. We had many videos for resources including a man named josef’s machines, his videos were amazing. Although Joseph’s videos were really cool the most helpful resources were former students’ videos. This set the expectation for me in a good way, so I wouldn’t get pressured to do a major machine like an adult. So far I’m really excited about my Rube Goldberg project. I decided to make my project bring me a snack. I think it’ll be a bit of a challenge but I think I’m ready. 

So far all we’ve done is come up with an idea for our project, make a sketch, take at least 10 photos related to our project and write this, our first blog post about this project .  It was a bit hard to come up with an idea at first, but by watching videos and seeing what my classmates were doing I came up with a great idea of my own. I had fun making my sketch but it was definitely tricky to make it, because I had to figure out what can go after a step so it can actually work. With some steps I actually built it to experiment if it could work. I had to re-do my sketch multiple times until I finally made the perfect one. I love my final sketch because I think it meets all the requirements needed so it exceeds project expectations but it’s up to Ms.Edwards to grade it  of course. I also love my sketch because I got to show off my artistic abilities making it. I’ve had a little trouble coming up with what I’m going to take 10 pictures of in my project,  so far I’ve only had two ideas, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something. Overall I’m loving this project, even if we’re just at the very beginning of it, I think although it’s challenging it’s also fun, interesting and gives students a chance to experiment and learn from mistakes.

Heres my sketch of my project: