A Rube Goldberg machine is a system of complex machines to complete a simple task. We were given the assignment of creating a Rube Goldberg with 3 planning and sketching days, 9 building days, and 3 days to make small changes to our project and plan our presentation. We based ours on the Scooby Doo series, and named our machine The Mystery Machine, after the van from the series. The final result was knocking over a cup of "Scooby Snacks" into a dog food bowl.
Here's a video of our machine working in slow motion:
Reflection
Overall, my group and I worked very efficiently together in completing this task. We were able to pot together a machine that not only worked, but was also aesthetically pleasing. The hardest part was probably the presentation planning days, because we had to calculate physics equations and throw together a presentation in 3 days. The tube in the last step of our project broke off on the day of the presentation, so we were in a mad scramble to fix it.
One thing we could have worked on is planning out each individual build day, because we didn't have a set schedule on what to install on what days, which made it a hassle to complete. We also could've worked on time management, because some days we barely got anything done, and we also were still working on it on presentation planning days. Other than those two things, I believe that together my group and I worked very well together. Our judges during our presentations liked our project, and we were able to answer their questions successfully. The scoring was out of 100, and they gave us scores of 86/100 and 92/100. I enjoyed this project and I look forward to doing more projects like it in STEM.
One thing we could have worked on is planning out each individual build day, because we didn't have a set schedule on what to install on what days, which made it a hassle to complete. We also could've worked on time management, because some days we barely got anything done, and we also were still working on it on presentation planning days. Other than those two things, I believe that together my group and I worked very well together. Our judges during our presentations liked our project, and we were able to answer their questions successfully. The scoring was out of 100, and they gave us scores of 86/100 and 92/100. I enjoyed this project and I look forward to doing more projects like it in STEM.