Rube Goldberg – Edublog Reflection

Video

The audio does cut out, and this is intentional, because I had to omit something that someone said.

Images

The starting point of the Rube Goldberg machine.

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The marbles start on the track at the top and roll down
They fall into the cardboard tube (at the back)
This pulls on the string, which pulls on the cardboard tube (at the front)

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The end of the tube gets pulled upward, and the marbles roll down onto the next track.

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The marbles from the last image tip the “double track.”
As a result, the other marble rolls down onto the next track.

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The marble keeps rolling down the track.

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The marble falls down the tube and hits the plastic bin. The plastic bin is resting on the metal supports of the table, so this makes a more audible noise.
The person sitting beside the table is startled. In the video and these images, this could not be shown.

Core Competency Reflection: Critical Thinking

Describe something that didn’t work and what you did differently.

One part of this project that did not work was our original method of making noise. We were trying to aim the marble at a small plastic container, but we found that we often missed, especially when we had to take our project down and set it back up the next day. In order to make sure that this part of our machine worked, we used a large plastic bin instead.

We also had problems with the open cardboard tube (see second image). We were having trouble directing the marbles onto the next track. We overcame this by taping small pieces of plastic (“connectors” for the “car tracks”) to each side so that the marbles had a narrower path to take.