Education Through Gaming: Math and Science Roundup

To wrap up my mini-series on educational video gaming, allow me to share the other online resources that we have particularly enjoyed over the last year or two. Given our tech limitations (we own only laptops – no Ipads or Itouches or anything like that), we generally stick to the resources we can easily access on the web.

As I was writing this post, I realized there is perhaps a discussion to be had as to what constitutes a video game. Is it simply a self-contained app that you play exclusively on a tech device? Or do you take into account resources that provide challenges to accomplish away from the computer or Ipad, rewarding players only upon completion of the task? For this post, I choose the second and broader view.

CellCraft

I’ve spoken about this game before. CellCraft is a game we discovered only this year, and thoroughly enjoyed its fun combination of learning with super fun video-gaming challenges and silly fantasy. Here’s my take, from my previous post:

The other completely addictive activity we dived into is a video game called CellCraft. Holy cow, folks – this was ridiculously fun. Though the creators definitely took some artistic license (you find the organelles you need, and at one point our animal cell is given plant cell chloroplasts to generate more energy), the science behind most of the game is pretty accurate. The player must run the cell, making sure all organelles are doing what they need to do, and are getting the resources they need to thrive.

Viruses periodically attack the cell, which you must biologically defend, and there is an overarching fantasy narrative: an alien platypus race on a threatened planet is sending this cell across the expanse of space to land on a new planet (Earth) where it can grow into new platypusses. Platypi? Whatever. It’s cute and fun. Eva and I played it together for days, and I loved hearing her yell out “we need more lysosomes!!” and the like. It’s free for download, so check it out. Ian played it a little too, but he hasn’t covered cell biology yet. After watching both experiences, I recommend using it after the student has already studied the structure and function of a cell. It’s better as a reinforcement activity than a straight-ahead teaching tool.

Interestingly, now that the semester is over, I’ve been able to compare having a kid use it in tandem with biology study and not. Eva played the whole game through, and even now, months later, she has a firm grasp on the variety and function of a cell’s organelles. Ian, who only dabbled in the game one afternoon, still has to really think to recall the same information. Eva engaged with the material more deeply than her brother because of CellCraft; the game took us many hours to play, and oftentimes she and I had to work together to make sure the cell got what it needed during its more dire moments. It was exciting and fun, and now that information is hers. Ian on the other hand learned the information more traditionally – through lectures and texts – and never became emotionally invested, so the information failed to resonate. I mean, he gets it. He just doesn’t own it.

Alcumus

Alcumus falls under my broader video game definition. This “game” is honestly more of a cool math problem generator that rewards success with XP and challenge badges (pre-algebra and up). Think along the lines of a Khan Academy setup. For a while, Ian loved Alcumus. This was a couple of years ago when he was stagnating in math. I could give him a set of problems on a sheet of paper, and he would absolutely hate it. But when the same problems were presented to him with Alcumus’ digital rewards, math became something to look forward to. Seriously – he went from struggling through this topic for 40 minutes a day to working without interruption for up to 4 hours at a time! This excitement did eventually wear off for him, and Alcumus has never had the same pull for Eva that it did for her brother, but still. It’s free, has quality problems with funny educational instructional videos to help you out if you need it, and it just may be the thing your kid needs to get through a difficult hump in math. To be honest, I think the instructional videos – though still limited in scope – are more engaging than the ones Khan Academy produces. Not to diss Khan. I love me some Khan. But hopefully by now, you’re well-educated about that fabulous resource.

DIY

This is our newest discovery, and hoo-boy, are we instant fans. Their mission is to help kids become makers. Makers of anything – music, art, clubs, science gizmos, computer gizmos… they challenge you to cook, work on open source sites, create forts, make magic, build an engine, study wildlife, and yes you Minecraft-addicts: they even have Minecraft-related challenges. Here’s the very simple way it works: choose a challenge (or create your own), follow the instructions (or make your own), complete the challenge, photograph or film it, and upload it to your free account on the site. The staff reviews and approves your work, and you get an awesomesauce badge (think Girl Scouts) once you’ve completed three tasks in a single topic. If they like your work, they’ll highlight it on their website, making you feel super-cool. Eva and I have decided that science for all of next year will simply be making stuff, using this amazing resource.

Hmm. So now you may be asking: what no Angry Birds? Well, actually, no. I’m a reluctant gamer, I suppose, and my preference for the most part is topic-specific resources like CellCraft and Alcumus, and those like DIY that encourage real-life interaction. At the end of the day, I hope to have spent much more time away from screens than in front of them.

But before you techies judge me as a stone-ager, allow me to share this video that came across my feed this week: a message about the importance of moving beyond simply playing games to learning the code that comprises them. (And, you guessed it -  there’s a link at the end to a site where you can learn how to code with a bit of gaming help!) No matter how we feel about them, video games and technology and the code that makes them do what they do are an important part of our existence today. Code is our language now. And we’d best not get left behind.

New Year Family Goal-Setting Time: Science

I love fresh starts. A semi-annual house purger, I enjoy clearing out and sharing items that no longer have personal use or meaning. I am a goal-setter and re-evaluator. I constantly question if this or that thing is working, and if the answer is “no,” I have no problem improving it if possible or dumping it altogether if not.

The New Year is of course one of the grander opportunities for this kind of exercise, and for homeschool, it’s a great time to evaluate our year, change things that aren’t working, and make plans for a winter and spring that are going to pop. As in all things – especially in homeschooling – the kids get a say in how things shake out. I ask them what they are enjoying in school, what’s not so great, and then we brainstorm together. This is one of the greatest gifts of homeschooling: you can turn on a dime and make your environment better. It’s this constant evaluation and tweaking process that makes homeschooling work for our family – without it, well, why bother?

For the next few posts, I’m going to share this process for the different elements of our study and our lives. Today I’m going to talk about science.

Ian and Biology

Science was the school subject requiring the most alteration for both kids. Ian had been working with the AP Biology course offered in the online program Thinkwell; he had enjoyed the sample lectures he watched, and we had never really done online education before, so we figured we’d give it a go. But though he started out enthusiastic, things went downhill over the course of the fall. First off, the pace of the class is intense, and Ian found himself pushing through lectures too quickly. There is no opportunity for meaningful discussion about the subject matter, no hands-on exploration or labs, and the quizzes and tests seem to focus on tedium instead of deep understanding. My very bright boy was failing biology; he began to dread it, and felt well, like a failure – like he wasn’t cut out for it.

My dad was able to talk with Ian a lot about biology over the holidays. Here they are together on a Christmas family sleigh-ride.

I know Ian is not a failure – that he has an extreme ability to understand new and complex concepts. I began to wonder if the Thinkwell program was simply not a good fit for him. Over the month of December, I had my dad look at the course and quizzes. My dad, conveniently, is a retired genetics professor, and spent his career teaching college level biology, botany, genetics, etc. After some review of the course and interviews with Ian, we decided that my dad (who lives in NC) would take over Ian’s biology study, connecting through Skype and email a couple of times each week. Ian is extremely happy with this arrangement, and though biology still isn’t something he wakes up jazzed about, he sees a possibility of success.

By the way, leaving the Thinkwell course half-finished is walking away from a sizable chunk of change that I laid down in the fall for the year-long course. But one of the first rules of homeschooling is to be prepared to drop things that aren’t working, even if they were expensive.

Eva and Robotics

Adding the last details for shooter-bot

Eva and I spent the fall studying cell biology and the human body. For spring, we had laid out botany, zoology, and ecology. But though we had super fun resources to work with in the fall (especially for cell biology), I hadn’t come up with anything terribly exciting for the spring studies. Eva’s only 9, so I don’t feel pushed to necessarily give her all this right away. She and I spent several weeks in December brainstorming: I asked her to consider what she might like to study instead. After many conversations, she presented robotics as her favorite choice. A Lego fanatic, Eva had drooled over the Lego Mindstorms kit for years and wondered if, just maybe, she could do Lego for school. She was so excited, that really the only answer I was ever going to give was yes.

The kit came in the mail on Wednesday, and I swear you’ve never seen someone so excited. Eva tracked the shipping online, and then sat in the front window for hours waiting for the UPS truck on The Day of Arrival. She spun around in a spinny chair all day, alternately reading and drawing pictures of robots and gardens on the front window with dry erase pens. Now that it’s here, it’s all she wants to do, and after just one day Eva is already so competent in the building and programming of her first robot (yes, she’s already completed one), it’s mind-boggling. Every hour or so, I hear a gasp of excitement “I love school SO much!” or “I can’t believe I get to do this for school!” or “thank you so much mom for getting this for me!” Yeah, I think this will work out fine. And don’t worry: Ian gets in on the robotics action too. How can he not?

Of course one of the first tasks for our new shooter-bot was to shoot Kinzy, the family koala that is the subject of many of Eva’s stories and her latest book. Here’s a little peek:

Cell Biology Addiction!

Biology is in full swing at the Ridenhour abode. Ian is trucking along with his Thinkwell AP Biology course, and Eva and I are steadily working through the “Cells” curriculum by Ellen McHenry. We’re exploring all the different parts of the cell, playing games, watching cool youtube videos, and making cell art.

Eva is so enamored with cell biology, she’s decided to set her new novel within one. She’s developed quite an extensive plot, shrinking and trapping a goth girl within a cell as the protector of a secret code that her parents (now deceased) placed as codons within the cell’s DNA. This secret code contains the magic formula for world peace. The cell is of course under attack as the evil folks want to get at the codons, and it is up to Goth Girl and a band of superhero cousins to save the day. Every day Eva is working on plot and character development ideas, and her story is feeding her desire to  understand cell structure and functions. She doesn’t start writing the book itself until Nov. 1 (National Novel Writing Month), but she is very excited.

Interestingly, Stephen Colbert just last week interviewed a geneticist from Harvard who is working on mapping the personal genome. At the end of their conversation, he presented Colbert with a tiny slip of paper that held a dot. He informed Colbert that the dot contained 20,000 copies of the geneticist’s new boo; he and his team had converted all the book’s text and photos into binary code, and then converted that code into patterns of TCA and G amino acids, which comprise DNA’s magic alphabet. I couldn’t believe it. It’s Eva’s science fiction/fantasy book, happening right now! I dragged Eva into the room and showed her the interview. She loved it.

The other completely addictive activity we dived into is a video game called CellCraft. Holy cow, folks – this was ridiculously fun. Though the creators definitely took some artistic license (you find the organelles you need, and at one point our animal cell is given plant cell chloroplasts to generate more energy), the science behind most of the game is pretty accurate. The player must run the cell, making sure all organelles are doing what they need to do, and are getting the resources they need to thrive. Viruses periodically attack the cell, which you must biologically defend, and there is an overarching fantasy narrative: an alien platypus race on a threatened planet is sending this cell across the expanse of space to land on a new planet (Earth) where it can grow into new platypusses. Platypi? Whatever. It’s cute and fun. Eva and I played it together for days, and I loved hearing her yell out “we need more lysosomes!!” and the like. It’s free for download, so check it out. Ian played it a little too, but he hasn’t covered cell biology yet. After watching both experiences, I recommend using it after the student has already studied the structure and function of a cell. It’s better as a reinforcement activity than a straight-ahead teaching tool.

We’re wrapping up this week with mitosis and meiosis, and going back to play with some activities and quizzes we skipped over. After we complete the study of internal cell function, we’ll launch in to various cell types. This will in turn move us further out and onto anatomy.

It’s funny – neither of my kids was too excited about biology going in, but now both of them will tell you it’s among their favorite subjects! Until next time….

Building Biologists

This year I was challenged with the task of teaching biology to two children who won’t dig in the garden, don’t like to get dirty, are absolutely repulsed by the idea of dissection, and are easily grossed out. They love chemistry, physics, lego building, and astronomy. But biology just seemed too… wet, I suppose, to generate appeal among the 2-student masses.

Needless to say, I spent most of the summer researching. How do you teach biology? What all does one cover? How do I do this and appeal to my kids’ more orderly natures?

Solution number one came for Ian, who is by far the more fastidious of the two. Though we’ve never used online education before, Ian checked out some sample lecture videos of Thinkwell‘s AP Biology course. He was hooked, voluntarily watching 2 hours of video lectures, just because he was interested. As he had been dreading biology for the better part of a year, I was completely shocked at his new-found love, and purchased the course on the spot. He was so sweet – he kept saying how wonderful it was to have a real expert teaching the material, and would then immediately apologize for fear that he hurt my feelings. I had to explain to him that as a home educator, my job is as much facilitator as teacher – that it is my role to make sure my kids get a good education, no matter who the teacher is, or how the information is delivered. I also explained that as kids get older, even professional teachers specialize, becoming experts in their fields of math or science or literature.

Eva makes tomato cytoskeletons on a backdrop of marshmallow phosphate heads that comprise the inner cell membrane. The egg is a lipid raft, carrying a blueberry protein. Pistachio shells represent membrane-bound proteins. The assignment was simply to create the marshmallow phosphate head-membrane in a tray of water; the rest was all her idea.

But back to the story. Now I am working with Eva by herself, and we’re having a blast. I ended up purchasing a curriculum from Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop simply called “Cells.” Ellen approaches education similarly to myself. She does a wonderful job mixing humor and cartoons, complex information, youtube videos, and hands-on crafts and experiments. We used her “Elements of the Universe” curriculum when we studied chemistry and loved it. Of course I never ever follow a curriculum without mixing and adding, even ones as good as these, so I purchased a few extras to add to the mix. You can see what all I ordered here; just scroll down to the biology section.

The Cells curriculum begins with a unit on molecular biology; I found this to be the perfect approach for my little chemist, and we started the year off talking about molecular bonding and ions and electrons. The Cells curriculum does a great job explaining everything on the molecular level, breaking down cell parts to their atomic makeup, and always reminding the student that everything is comprised of the elements of the periodic table. The reinforcement of this structure helps us, like learning vocabulary in a foreign language. We’re really enjoying it.

Eva puts a twist on her K’Nex double helix DNA model.

This week we’ve moved into the Magic World of DNA. I got to bring out one of my special purchases, a DNA model produced by K’Nex. Pure fabulousness. Eva commented, “Mom, it’s like Lego, only I’m building ME!” She couldn’t wait to work on it, and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was for her to identify the phosphates, sugars, and base pairs. When Ian got home from band, she explained all the parts to him (he hasn’t gotten to this in his AP class yet!). It’s been a lot of fun. Tomorrow we’ll split the double helix and talk about mRNA and transcription.

So far, so good. Both kids are enjoying biology, and that was my number one goal. And with fun projects that engage them where they are (crafts, online activities, K’Nex, puzzles, etc.), I’m hoping that by the end they’ll think of the subject as exciting and intriguing, like they do the other sciences.

Sum-Up: How to Do a Rube Goldberg Project and Not Lose Your Mind

Ever since I started posting about our Rube Goldberg work, I’ve noticed that lots of folks have found their way to my blog with searches like “how do I do a Rube Goldberg.” There’s really no manual out there that I’ve found – no step by step instruction book. This makes sense, really, because the whole idea behind the Rube is that every one is different and completely dependent on the individual’s creativity.

Still, after doing it with my kids, I think I can provide a bit of road map for other intrepid adventurers.

How To Do A Rube Goldberg

1. Begin with youtube. Just spend a morning searching for Rube Goldberg videos – there are hundreds! And so amazing. Here are a couple of my favorites:

2. Don’t forget to look at the original drawings too! Try Rube Goldberg: Inventions by Maynard Frank Wolfe.

3. Discuss with your students that this is about process as much as the end result. The magic of the Rube is the myriad opportunities it provides for problem solving! Be sure to show them the Mythbusters Christmas special, which shows not only their Rube Goldberg project, but provides a delightful insight to how many times things go wrong in a project like this, even for professionals.

4. Instruct students to decide on themes and an end action. Will the machine tell a story? What is its ultimate goal? Each portion of the machine has to receive an action that converts its potential energy to kinetic energy. It also has to cause the next action to happen. But don’t forget humor – this should be fun! My kids incorporated several of their favorite story lines into their project, including Harry Potter, Munchkin, and Eva’s beloved stuffed animal Kinzy.

5. Consider offering certain parameters. If you’re wanting to study simple machines as a part of this project (which I did), require the students to incorporate them. They’ll do this anyway, because Rube Goldbergs are all about simple machines! But by requiring certain machines, it helps students identify the components they’re using and think about them scientifically. Parameters also help get the kids started. The only machine I required for the kids was a pulley. I also required that the final machine be comprised of at least five components. But the rest was up to them.

6. Have your students draw out ideas for their machines. Or not. Follow your kids’ leads. If they’re list-makers, let them make lists. If they feel the need instead to just get started, then let them. Again, this is all about process.

7. Be prepared to ditch large amounts of work if necessary. If something’s not working, then change it to make the project successful. We had to change everything, including our timeline, materials, and even who would be working on it.

8. Ask discussion-oriented questions when things go wrong and be sure to have kids identify several things. Ask 1) what went wrong, 2) what made it go wrong, and 3) what are the possible solutions. Be sure to have them identify many possible solutions before choosing one. For example, when our broomstick fell too quickly on our falling pendulum, the kids identified all the things that could slow it down. They could increase friction, decrease the broomstick’s weight, or decrease the incline of the pendulum track. We discussed the pros and cons of each avenue before the kids made their choice.

9. Do not be in a hurry. Rube Goldbergs can take a lot of time, depending on how much the kids bring to it. Don’t rush the process.

10. Video, share, and celebrate your successes! Take advantage of youtube, facebook, email, your school website, friends, and family. If you’re into it, do a blooper reel too.

11. And lastly, I offer a prequel suggestion. Rube Goldberg machines are a great way to teach physical science. We did a semester of physics and simple machines before we started the Rube. I used Lego WeDo Education (which was a great concept, but the software was constantly crashing), Forces and Motion Science Fair Projects by Robert Gardner, Zombies and Forces and Motion by Mark Weakland, and a cute albeit dated series of clips I found on youtube by Eureka. You’ll find them by going to youtube and typing “simple machines Eureka.” There are a lot of other great instructional simple machines videos too, so have fun browsing around.

And now for the closeup tour. First, the video once again:

This is component number one, a simple ramp. The kids love the game Munchkin, and in that game there is a card called “Kill the Hireling.”

They think that’s hilarious and chose to use it for the first piece. The hireling (the lego figure at the bottom) ended up having to go without a head, because its head kept getting in the way. But we thought that was funny too.

This next component is one that we saw in a lot of other Rube Goldberg machines. The goal is to transfer movement from low to high using ramps, balls, and levers. Each ramp allows the ball to roll down and into a lever; the lever transfers the motion upwards to the next ramp.

The top ball falls into a bucket that’s attached to a pulley. The pulley system has a counterweight which is offset by the ball’s action.

…

When the pulley system is activated, it pulls a string (I did help with the tying of the string) that’s attached to a stick that props up a flying broomstick (a nod to Harry Potter). Once that stick is pulled away, the broomstick swings on a pendulum.

At the end of the broomstick’s arc is Kinzy’s bowl of eucalyptus. This bowl gets knocked off its pedestal and onto Kinzy’s table. Lunch is served!

…

The Rube Goldberg Conclusion: If it’s broken, toss it. Then try something new!

Unveiling the Masterful Lego Rube Goldberg, by Eva!

You know how you get an idea in your head about the way a certain thing is going to be, and you get really attached to that idea, and you put a lot of time towards it, but it’s just not working, but you don’t want to let it go, because you want so badly for it to work out just how you thought? Yeah. I had a vision. A RUBE GOLDBERG VISION! We would create a project worthy of an OK Go video. We would start upstairs, transferring motion down the stairwell to the basement. We would have pulleys and wood and metal and all sorts of crazy contraptions. The kids would be so incredibly engaged they would wake up begging to work on it. They would become engineering geniuses, inspired to now go forth and invent the technology needed to solve all the world’s environmental problems. In short, this project would change the world.

Here’s the reality: Ian is swamped with his own Rube Goldberg project on his Science Olympiad team. Regionals are coming up, and the boy has a lot of ground to cover in the coming weeks. Actually, as noted in an earlier post, he’s been under a lot of deadlines, and I’m trying to ease things up for him a lot, opening up time so that he can do quality work on his existing projects. Though the falling pendulum was Eva’s design, the size and types of materials were a bit daunting to her. It was clear to me that even with (or perhaps because of) Ian’s involvement, Eva wasn’t taking as much initiative as I had hoped. But without Ian as a teammate, I was afraid that she would simply follow my instructions, and I didn’t want that.

We did what we always do in situations like these: we formed a huddle ’round the classroom table. We concluded that the pendulum, though not a part of a larger machine, was still an excellent project, providing tons of problem solving opportunity. We decided to give it a loving farewell and take a hammer to it. (And don’t we all kind of love destroying things?) Ian will continue his work with Rube through his Science Olympiad team, so that’s set. Then we turned to Eva. “Eva,” I said. “How would you like to build your very own Rube Goldberg by yourself with legos?” Her eyes lit up. The wood and nails and saws and whatnot were simply out of her reach. She didn’t know how to use those things to create what she envisioned. But legos… this is a world she understands.

We decided to require five parts to her Rube Goldberg (this had been our goal for the larger Rube as well, building one component per week). I would answer questions, but really leave the design work to her. In just one week, she finished the entire project! I helped a bit with the pulleys, and then did some troubleshooting with her, but this was truly Eva’s project. Changing the materials was key, and I was pleased to be reaffirmed in our decision to shift the game plan.

In tomorrow’s post, I’m going to talk more about the Rube Goldberg process and include more photos of each component. But what you’re wanting now is the video of course! Here’s Eva to walk you through it:

And here’s the machine in action!

And one more time from another angle:

Rube Goldberg, Falling Pendulum, Take One Zillion

I know you’ve been dying to know how our falling pendulum project is going. Well, cats and kittens, I’m happy to report we worked on it all morning yesterday and called it success. First off, as discussed, we cut a new board and replaced the sweepy piece. The cool bit about the new straight zigzag is that it looked like Harry Potter’s scar. Since this piece of our Rube Goldberg is dedicated to the Harry Potter story (broomstick a’flying), this was an Exciting Discovery.

Unfortunately, the new piece of plywood wasn’t quite as wide as the original, so the incline of the zigzag turned out to be a bit steeper than we had intended. This ended up being a problem. But here we are before we knew it would be a problem, all so very proud of our construction skills.

Here's the new pendulum board, with the straight zigzag.

Here’s what happened:

It just went down too quickly. There was no pendulum action to speak of, and it looked messy. We hrumphed. Ian got super frustrated and had to take a break. But Eva and I carried on, brainstorming possible solutions. Generated ideas included cutting a new board to decrease the incline, increasing friction somehow, and decreasing the weight of the broom. We decided that the most effective option was to cut a new board. But we also wanted to move past this portion of the Rube Goldberg. So we chose what we felt was the second-best (and quicker) option: decrease the weight of the broom.

Eva is a Harry Potter fanatic, and like any witch worth her salt, she owns more than one flying broom. Her second broom is a wooden dowel bound with twigs. We weighed it and discovered it was a good 11 ounces lighter than the plastic broom. We switched it out. We also switched out our heavy wooden pendulum arm for a much lighter picture frame and hot glued a small plastic ring on one end. We then used green yarn to keep it from sliding down the dowel. You just need to see it:

The new, lighter broomstick, ready for take-off.

At this point, Ian was working on a music theory assignment, with a small black cloud looming over his head. He can’t stand not being able to figure something out right away, so he had switched to a topic that he felt he had more control over. But Eva and I were not to be deterred, so after lightening the counterweight bucket and giving everything one last cinching, we took off! And here it goes!

Sorry for my loud “woo hoo.” I can’t seem to help myself. Though the end result was not as graceful as had first imagined, we decided that it was good enough to be considered a success. In the final project, the broom will knock over something when it reaches its destination. Of course we’ll have to create something else to get it going to begin with. All to come. We still have 5 weeks to work on this.

And what about poor Ian? This lesson led into a wonderful momma-son discussion about the importance of problem solving. Ian is incredibly bright, and concepts come to him with remarkable ease. There is not much in the way of academics that he struggles with, and when he does hit a snag, he gets down down down. I told him that though his memorization and comprehension abilities knock my socks off, the more important skill here is to think creatively about how you use the facts at hand. This is how new technologies get invented. It will be how we figure out what to do about this climate change mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. So many problems don’t have instruction manuals; we have to create new solutions to these unprecedented issues. This is difficult for Ian, who likes to master something at his first go. I told him (again) that the point of doing the Rube Goldberg isn’t the finished product, but all the fabulous, infuriating toe-stumpers along the way. It’s the process that we’re learning from here.

He nodded and said he understood. But I think this is a life lesson for him, which will need to be re-experienced one zillion more times in the coming years.

Rube Goldberg Progress Report

As you may remember, the kids and I are spending a large chunk of our school year building a Rube Goldberg machine. For those of you just joining us, I’ll give you the nutshell story so far (you can also click on the Rube Goldberg category at the end of this post, and it should pull up all my related previous posts).

We began by studying physics, simple machines, and Newton’s laws all while working through the Lego WeDo robotics kit. Then Ian signed up for the Rube Goldberg project with his Science Olympiad group at the middle school, and I thought: I want in on that. So we decided to build one at home as well.

To start the Rube Goldberg project, we began with youtube video research, sketching plans on our hallway wall, and building smaller projects to get our feet wet. When we got brave enough, we picked one of the kid’s brainstormed components, which happened to be Eva’s Harry Potter themed falling pendulum. She wants to make her Harry Potter broomstick “fly” back and forth and down; at the end, it will knock something else over starting a new series of events.

There a couple of things you should know before I share our progress with you.

1) Despite my most fervent efforts, I can find no resources that teach how to build a Rube Goldberg machine, or how to do this in a classroom setting. This is probably due to the fact that the very essence of these machines is their uniqueness. It’s really whatever you come up with. But I can’t find resources to even help us get started. I’ve heard to begin by building the beginning and end components, but that wasn’t working for us. So we’re starting in the middle and moving both backward and forward. We’re making this up as we go here.

2) I am in no way an engineer or handy-woman. Once early in our marriage, Jamie and I knocked out some wet sheet rock in the top of a tiny closet, looking for the offending leak. What we found was a distressing lack of pipes. Perplexed, we went upstairs only to discover a leaky water bottle stored in the closet directly above. The angst and agony we went through to replace the unnecessarily removed sheet rock served as an early relationship test. We made it out alive, but we now try to limit our household projects to stay within our limited abilities.

3) I’ve never studied physics.

4) We have no working budget.

Now that I’ve said all that, I’m sure you are reading with the appropriate non-mocking attitude that I strongly desire. I’m going to tell you our story through pictures.

Eva's sketch of her Harry Potter broomstick falling pendulum

This is what we started with. We decided to use plywood to make the main face of the structure. I raided my garage and found quite a few handy items, namely all the wood we needed. The plywood is left over from a playhouse we built several years ago. The 2x4s we found to make the stand were old concrete frames that a contractor left here after laying in a patio for us.

The kids sketched out the design on the plywood, and I suggested a sweeping pattern to enhance the broom’s sweeping motion (pun intended). I used a jigsaw to cut out their pattern.

Cutting out the sketched pattern

I cut our stand down to size, and the we put it all together in the basement.

Ian nails the plywood to the stand

Once the kids put the feet on, they could stand the whole thing up:

The erected pendulum structure

Next the kids took an old dowel, tied the broom to one end, and a bucket full of weights to the other. Old margarine lids served as the “washers” to keep the dowel from sliding. Here’s Eva adding the counterweights to the bucket:

Eva balances out the counterweight bucket

And here’s Falling Pendulum Version 1:

The falling pendulum, ready for its first trial

Here’s what happened when they tried it out:

The result of the first falling pendulum trial

As you can see, it was a total train wreck. The margarine lids had no ability whatsoever to keep the dowel from sliding, and the broom spun in circles, crashing in to the frame. We had issues to resolve, so it was off to the hardware store to see what we could find!

Hardware store bounty!

The washers and pins replaced the margarine lids. Here’s the new look:

Much fancier than the margarine lids. And more effective.

But the next trial didn’t do much better. Turns out that the washers, big though they are, weren’t big enough to stay on the track at the peak/turns. They fell right out. Eva tried to fix this by hot gluing some yogurt lid pieces to the corners, but that didn’t end up working, because the washers tended to slip up inside anyway. To make a more effective correction, Ian took the wood I had cut out of the plywood piece and had me hacksaw off some pieces that they hot-glued back into the slot.

Eva hot glues on the plastic frame adjustments

And here’s the revised revision:

Eva glues in scrap wood to fill in the gaps

The next issue we tackled was the broom-on-rope-swingy-issue. We needed it to swing back and forth, not twist. Ian grabbed more scrap wood out of the garage, and had me drill some holes to make a non twisty-pendulum arm.

Ian secures the broom to the pendulum bar

We were so proud of ourselves! We had accomplished so much and felt pretty good about how the next trial was going to turn out. And that was our mistake. For alas, when we tried it again, my cleverly advised sweep-up track proved too much; the broom never made it past the first level. It just sat there, staring at us, mocking a bit, I think.

And again:

I didn’t excuse “class” until the kids identified the next revision. They decided to remove the sweep cut, which means I need to cut another piece of plywood (thankfully, I have one more in the garage). We’ll try a straight zig-zag pattern instead.

I’m loving all the problem solving this project is providing. When you don’t know what you’re doing, then you just have to figure it out.

Creativity Day

Yesterday I woke up and felt deep down that the normal school day wasn’t meant to be. So I declared Creativity Day! And there was much rejoicing. I do this from time to time, especially when our hearts are committed to particular projects. Yesterday’s was a justified proclamation; the kids and I all have projects going right now, and what we really want to do is work on those all the time. I felt pretty powerful just naming the day and changing gears like that. So what are we up to?

Ian and his story...

Ian’s still digging his composing work and has several songs in his head. He can’t get them out fast enough, and new tunes keep budging their way into his brain, pushing others aside. Basically, he needs more time to get this stuff down. He’s also been assigned to write a science fiction story; he just finished reading The Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku, and Jamie thought this would be a fabulous way to tie his preferred reading into literature. Ian’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, and he can’t stop writing. So yesterday, that’s what he did: composed – both music and story.

Set #1: Kinzy's house

Eva has finished editing her new book and is now ready to begin the artwork. Her book, Kinzy’s Chronicles, is a series of short stories based on her battered and beloved stuffed koala named Kinzy. She’s decided to stage photographs of the stories using her stuffed animals, and this kind of work also takes dedicated time. Yesterday she began building her sets. You can see from the photograph that things are getting messy around here. Actually, that’s her art area, and it’s always that messy.

I’ve been working on a painting for four months now, and was itching to finish it. Additionally, the kids had sketched out the first piece of their Rube Goldberg project, and the wood had been set aside for several days awaiting the touch of a jigsaw. It was a warm day yesterday. Perfect for all these activities.

My finished painting, started in fall and completed in winter

It’s so important to make this time during the school year. I try to keep Fridays open for these kinds of activities throughout the year, but then there are those times when everyone’s just got the craving for more. Stopping our normal routine and honoring the creative nature in each of us is essential for our personal growth; the activities also clear our minds and refocus us for more structured work later. Not to mention that these activities are no less important than those “structured” ones anyway. Ian’s a musician; Eva’s an author. It’s what we do.

Tomorrow I’ll talk a little about revamping our schedule for the spring to accommodate increasing activities and the kids’ unique learning preferences. And don’t you worry, dear readers. I’ll have some Rube Goldberg updates for you very soon. Be forewarned: they’re not all pretty.

 

We Interrupt this Physics Program for Some Creative Pursuits

While I’ve been blogging about math resources this week, the kids have been studying Newton’s Laws of Motion. I had a full week of it planned, but I had to reconsider my schedule after Ian became inspired to write a new composition, this time for a chamber orchestra with synth and a drum kit. He was so on fire that I had to squash my science lessons to bookend the week, leaving Wednesday and Thursday open for creative pursuits.

While Ian was composing (and he finished his lovely song by the way, in just three days!), Eva struck out into the land of filmmaking, creating a couple of silly episodes of “Kinzy’s Cooking Show.” Kinzy is the main character of the book she’ll be releasing this May, and she wants to build a whole world up around him. We built a set complete with stage lights and backdrop, filmed the clips, and I taught her how to upload them to youtube and from there drop them into her website. She gave her website a new look (and so, you may have noticed, did I), and all in all we had a good time. You can click on the link above to see them all, or just get a flavor right here. This is episode #1.

But back to physics. Our textbook choice this week was the very scientific Zombies and Forces and Motion by Mark Weakland. On the first day, we talked about Newton’s first law: things at rest stay at rest, and things in motion stay in motion. To visually explore this law (besides looking at the hilarious illustrations in our text), we balanced a stuffed animal on a toy car and observed its forward motion when the car smashed into a conspicuous wall – lots of fun there. We flicked index cards out from under balls and watched them fall straight down as the cards went sailing forward. We drug blocks on various surfaces and discussed friction. We played air hockey at the university to observe what happens when you remove this friction.

But the best thing we did was this:

I should add that Eva did this successfully as well. And of course we had some unsuccessful tries too, with mostly full cups of water. That was fun. And wet.

Happy Friday, everyone. See you next week!