Lesson 1: Inspiration and note taking

Here's a look into how real pinball machines are made.

You can see some cardboard pinball machine examples here, here, and here.

There are a few rules:

• Once the marble is placed into the game/device it cannot be directly controlled by your hand/finger. You need to build control mechanisms like flippers and a ball launch.

• You need to build it from common materials - tape, glue, cardboard, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, rubber bands, etc.

• You will need to build in a light-up element (s) that the marble will activate. You will need to use what we've learned about creating circuits with LEDs to do this.

• The pinball machine needs a theme and decorative elements to bring this theme to life

• There needs to be some way to keep score and to lose/win.

• You need objects for the marble to interactive with, like bumpers, ramps, tunnels, holes, etc.

• You need to follow all the steps of the design process.

Today's Tasks:

Watch the sample videos. Fill out this GoogleForm sharing with me observations you've made about pinball machines, telling me about your theme, and sharing ideas on how you plan to bring it to life.