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.

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!