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A Rube Goldberg Machine is a series of events that work together to complete a goal. It has multiple steps that lead to other steps until the steps eventuality complete the final action.
We had about 5 weeks to work on our Rube Goldberg Machine. We had trouble figuring out what our project's theme was going to be but in the end we decided on travel/geography themed. Our Rube Goldberg machine had about 7 different landmarks that were visited throughout the project. We represented these landmarks in different ways, some were very big and emphasized, while others were just part of the background. Our project was the only one laying horizontally while every other project was vertical. Since ours was horizontal, it was difficult to figure out how to make our ball go from going down a ramp to then make it gain elevation. To solve this problem we ended up using lots of dominoes to change the elevation. Because we used so many dominoes, our project would not work every time because lots of our dominoes had to be put at very specific angels to make them fall correctly. Luckily, on the night we presented our machines, they worked every time.
On the left is a video of our Rube Goldberg Machine working and our completed slideshow presentation.
Construction Log
Construction Log
Throughout our project we were required to keep a construction log of our build and planning days. We had three planning days and nine build days to complete our project. An extra build day was given our to those who weren't quite done, we had just finished our project and on build day #10 so we started planning out our presentation instead.
Planning Day #1 - brainstormed ideas and came up with a theme
Planning Day #2 - figured out different steps for our project
Planning Day #3 - finalized ideas and made a blueprint
Build Day #1 - started Golden Gate Bridge foundation
Build Day #2 - finished Golden Gate Bridge and lever
Build Day #3 - started Eiffel Tower
Build Day #4 - finished Eiffel Tower
Build Day #5 - started volcano and Great Wall of China
Build Day #6 - finished Great Wall of China and set up dominoes
Build Day #7 - finished volcano and started pyramid
Build Day #8 - finished pyramid and started London Eye
Build Day #9 - finished London Eye and other missing details
Final Blue Print
Our final blue print is much neater and more organized than our original blue print. Unfortunately, we lost our original blue print so our final blue print is all we have. Our original blue print had much more steps that our final blue print. I'm very thankful we narrowed down the steps to our project because if we didn't we wouldn't have had finished in time!
Simple Machines
Our group had five out of six simple machines.
Inclined Plane
a ramp with slope
included in Golden Gate Bridge, Eiffel Tower, Great Wall of China, hot wheel track, and where the ball is getting hit off ramp by dominoes
Lever
bar resting on pivot used to lift or bump things
used in our second step when a ball hits one side and which makes the other side go up and release a ball
Pulley
a wheel on an axle that moves when one side gets heavier than the other and lifts the other up
used when ball drops in to London Eye cart and makes it turn
Axle
keeps the pulley held in place
used to keep London Eye in place
Screw
an inclined plane that turns and it wrapped about an object
used to let ball go down Eiffel Tower
Calculations
Velocity
Velocity is the rate of change of an object's position. It measures both speed and direction since it is also a vector quantity. It is measures in m/s. The velocity of one of our balls was 0.5 m/s. We found this by dividing the distance the ball fell by the time the ball fell in.
Force
The force is a push or pull of an object that causes a change in motion. Force is measured in newtons. The force our dominoes needed to be knocked over was 0.1 newtons.
Mechanical Advantage
The two types of mechanical advantage are real mechanical advantage and ideal mechanical advantage. Real mechanical advantage is how much easier a tool makes a task and it included friction. Ideal mechanical advantage is how much further you have to push using a tool and it assumes no friction. Real mechanical advantage can be calculated by dividing the Fload over the Feffort. Ideal mechanical advantage can be calculated by dividing the deffort over the dload. The units for both of these are times easier. If I had a pulley 24 m long and is pulling a 60N weight. I would have to pull the rope 18 meters with a force of 20N to raise the load 6 meters. To calculate the MAr I would have to divide 60N by 20N to get an MAr of 3. To find the MAi I would have to divide 18m by 6 to get an MAi of 3.
Acceleration
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, it is also how much an object is speeding up or slowing down. It is measured in m/s². To find the acceleration of something, you find the velocity and then divided the velocity by the time.
Work
The work of an object is the amount of energy put in to something. Work is measured in joules. To get the work of an object, you need to multiply the force and distance.
Potential and Kinetic Energy
Potential and kinetic energy are the two main types of energy we learned about in this unit. Potential energy is the energy an object has due to its position or gravitational field. it is measured in joules and abbreviated to PE. Kinetic energy is the amount of energy an object has because of it's motion. It is also measure in joules and abbreviated to KE. When throwing a ball upwards, on the way up, the ball has more potential energy that kinetic, at the very top it has no kinetic or potential, and then on the way down it has more kinetic than potential. If I dropped a ball with the mass of 10 kg from 1 meter. i would find the PE by multiplying the mass, 10 kg, the acceleration due to gravity, 9.8 m/s², and the height 1 meter. I would get a result of 98J. The kinetic energy energy and the potential energy are equal so the kinetic energy is also 98 J. There is a different equation for kinetic energy which is KE=1/2mv².
Reflection
This was a fun project to start the year in STEM! I enjoyed building, getting to know my team, planning out our project, and even doing the calculations! Since everyone is new to STEM and still figuring out how to do some things, there are obviously some things my group and I could do better, whether it's planning out of project better, or just listening to everyone's ideas before finalizing the plan.
At the beginning of the project, everyone was still getting to know each other and we were all a little too friendly. I think I was a little too scared to share my ideas because I didn't want my group to shoot them down. I also didn't want to tell my group mates I didn't think their ideas were the ideas we should use. During the second planning day, I got very mad at my group. We were all getting used to each other and started giving our honest opinions about everyone's ideas and it was easier for my group to shoot my ideas down because I was the only girl. This might not have been the case and I might be overreacting, but it's sure what it felt like. I kept telling my group different ideas that "weren't good" so they kept shooting them down. I got really mad at one point and almost felt like crying so I took a break and asked to use the restroom. I came back and told them one more of my ideas which was to color-code our blueprint like the other groups. This idea too was shut down and I remained silent the rest of the period. It wasn't the fact that my ideas kept getting shut down that angered me, but more of how I felt like my group was gaining up on me to make my experience miserable. This made me learn I really need to work on self-control, keeping my emotions to myself, and sticking up for myself.
We had a very rough start to the construction of our machine. In the first two days, all we accomplished was getting our Golden Gate Bridge done. We weren't splitting up the work at all and just had everyone working on the same thing. By about build day 5, we finally got good at splitting up the work and our project moved along much faster. Everyone had an even amount of work to do and we all worked really well together as a team!
The presentation portion of our project went amazing. We all worked on the slides we were going to read during Rube Goldberg Night (the night we present our project) and everyone made their work magnificent. The presentation itself went really good and everyone had their slides memorized and did a good job presenting. Of course, there are things we could have worked on, like pointing to the parts of our project when we talked about them, sounding more natural when we talked, and looking less awkward and nervous.
Overall, our Rube Goldberg projects were fun, hard, and a good learning experience. My group could've worked better as a team, listening to everyone's ideas, and splitting up work. I could've worked better at making sure I get heard, not getting worked up when my ideas don't get used, sounding natural when I present, and becoming more of a leader. I am so excited and prepared for our next project and I plan on improving my work and actions a lot.
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