The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project
Rube Goldberg Energy Project
Rube Goldberg Energy Project
A 6th Grade STEM Lesson
Lee C. Nigg
June 2023
Notes for Teachers
This lesson works really well at the end of the first semester or even better at the end of the year.
This lesson will take at least a week. More likely two weeks.
Allow about a week for students to bring in materials before they start building.
You will need a lot of space in your room!
I have been doing this experiment for 10 years and for some reason this year 1 group decided to do their Project vertically and the rest of the groups did similar projects. Usually they will go horizontally.
List of Materials
Standards
Physical Science:
6.P2U1.4
Develop and use a model to predict how forces act on objects at a distance.
Mathematical Practices:
6.MP.5 Use appropriate tools strategically.
6.MP.6 Attend to precision.
Science and Engineering Practices:
● develop and use models
● use mathematics and computational thinking
● construct explanations and design solutions
Ed Technology:
6-8.6.a. Students select appropriate platforms and tools to create, share, and communicate their work effectively.
Objective(s):
S.W.B.A.T. work with a group to design and build a Rube Goldberg Energy Project.
S.W.B.A.T. work with a group to video record their Project and create a Google Slide showing each energy transition with either a picture or create it in Scratch 3.0.
Agenda
5- 10 minutes- Creating Groups
10-15 minutes- Show the videos showing different Rube Goldberg Energy Projects.
5-10 minutes- Share the information page about who Rube Goldberg is or have them do research.
5-10 minutes-Have the class decide what is going to be the final task for the group. It works best if every group has the same final task.
20-30 minutes- Have each group fill out the Group Planning Sheet. If the backside of the paper is not large enough for the initial drawing, give the group a separate piece of paper. Remind students that their project can change once they start building. The drawing is to get them started.
Intro/Driving Question/Opening
Show the following Honda commercial:
Honda Commercial Rube Goldberg
Show the following Swish machine:
The Swish Machine: 70 Step Basketball Trickshot (Rube Goldberg Machine)
Show the following squirrel feeding machine:
Hands-on Activity Instructions
Groups: (Two ways of doing this. Teacher created and student created). Create groups of 3-4 students. Three works best but based on numbers may need a few groups with 4. Remember this will take up a great deal of space in your room. I had 8 groups of 3, 1 group of 4 and my room was full of materials for 2 weeks.
Notify parents that your class is doing this project so they know why students are asking to bring materials to school. I notify parents that they really shouldn’t have to buy anything to complete this project.
Hand Outs
Assessment
Rube Goldberg Energy Project having at least 5 (you can choose more, I did 10 with the beginning and final task each counting as one) energy conversions.
Peer Evaluation Form
Slide Presentation
Test in Quizizz
Differentiation
The biggest way the teacher can reduce the need for remediation is to carefully select which students are in which groups. With 3-4 four students it works well to have a high medium and low.
Interesting things may happen because it is hands-on and science, some students that have never been a leader may step up and become one. Also, a student that has been a leader in the past may struggle because of the hands-on.
Remediation
Extension/Enrichment
Writing
Have students turn their Rube Goldberg Energy Project into a 3-5 paragraph essay.
Math
Have the students time each of their Projects from start to finish and graph them on a number line.
Have the students divide their time by the number of energy transfers to calculate the mean of their transfers.
Calculate the Mean Absolute Deviation of their transfers.