The Rube Goldberg Machines camp at Hilltop Montessori School saw the children learn about simple machines like levers, pulleys, and ramps. They only had five days for this camp, but by the end of the week the students broke up into two groups and built two simple machines to share with family and friends.
Popping a Balloon
The first group put together a simple machine designed to break a balloon.
The machine involved ramps, dominoes, two different balls, and a car with a skewer on it. It took a few attempts to get it all right, but it was fun to watch the patient development, and the success!
Ball In A Cup
Next Up was the team that devised a plan to drop a tennis ball into a cup.
This setup involved a marble going through three ramps, dominoes, and a car that nudged the ball on its way. Check it out!
Learning Perseverance and Inventiveness
The students only had a short time during this camp, so their machines couldn’t get that elaborate. However, they did work at things, find materials that were ready to hand, and keep tweaking until each successive step performed as needed. One of the groups even made a rather significant change during the final demonstration as one component kept misfiring. Eventually everything worked out.
Also, all of the campers are students in our Elementary classroom. So we expect a number of “simple” machines to figure into our classroom experience this year.
Stay tuned and we will keep you posted!