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Science

Engineering Challenge: Build a Rube Goldberg Device with materials and toys from your home.

This can be a multi-day activity. Try adding on a little bit each day, or improving your strategy.

Design: Identify the simple task you want to achieve. You could turn off a light, open a door, pour a bowl of cereal, turn off an alarm clock, or ring a bell. Be creative — and unique.

Plan: Brainstorm a series of actions that will complete your task. Make a pin pop a balloon. Send a toy car down a ramp. Make dominoes fall. Draw a blueprint plan for what you expect to happen. The most important action will be the first step — that’s what starts the entire machine. Make sure your machine starts with a bang! Hint - Start small and keep the number of steps to a minimum. Then add more steps to your machine later.

Gather your materials: You can use almost anything to create your Rube Goldberg machine. Here are some ideas:

• Things that roll: marbles, balls, toy cars, skateboard, roller skate

• Recyclables: Cardboard, cereal boxes, cardboard trolls, plastic water bottles, cans, aluminum foil.

• Everyday materials: chopsticks, popsicle sticks, ruler, wooden blocks, bowls, string, tape, empty cans, balloons

• Ramps: toy train tracks, marble runs, books, trays, plastic tubing cardboard rolls.

Build your machine: As you create your machine, follow your blueprint and place your materials where you think they need to be. Start with just a few steps and then make it bigger. Practice makes perfect, so don’t expect your Rube Goldberg machine to work perfectly the first time you try it. There will be plenty of trial and error — and that’s OK. Adjust your materials and keep at it.

Predict: Where will the trouble spots be? How might you make that part of the design more reliable?

Test: Test your machine. Did it go all the way through to the end?

Reflect: What improvements can you make that will make the machine more reliable and able to accomplish your task? If a part did not work, how could you fix it?

Redesign: Redesign your machine, so it has more steps or works more reliably. Do this as many times as your wish!

Find more details and examples at TinkerLab.

See many video examples of Rube Goldberg machines here.