A Rube Goldberg® machine stalls.
Ask questions about the contact forces and energy used to cause chain reaction.
A Rube Goldberg® machine stalls when the paper roll doesn’t knock over the glass.
Click here for NGSS, CCSS (ELA), and California ELD standards.
In Lesson 1: What’s Going On?, students identified cause and effect relationships in a chain reaction and analyzed a tool (mousetrap) against criteria. Students drew models of the cause and effect relationship using forces (and tentatively added energy as they understood it).
In this lesson, students investigate a Rube Goldberg® machine (chain reaction) that stalls. Students compare and contrast the sections of the system that work and those that don’t in terms of force, energy (as they understand it), collisions, and speed. They look for cause and effect relationships and patterns in the data.
Throughout the lesson, a flag () denotes formative assessment opportunities where you may change instruction in response to students’ level of understanding and making sense of phenomena.
Part I | 30 minutes | Engage |
Part II | 45 minutes | Explore |
Part III | 45 minutes | Explain |
Part IV | 15 minutes | Elaborate/Evaluate |
Ask questions about the cause and effect relationships in a chain reaction that fails.
Compare and contrast observations of the system a successful and failed Rube Goldberg® machine in terms of cause and effect relationships.
Steps 11–14 are designed to build interdependence in the classroom. Half the room will create cause and effect statements for the successful Rube Goldberg® machine; the other half of the room will create a cause and effect statement for the failed Rube Goldberg® machine. Then groups will compare their sentence strips. The strips should be very similar to each other up to the point of the paper roll hitting the swivel tube. In the failed Rube Goldberg® machine, the sequence ends here. In the successful Rube Goldberg® machine, the sequence continues to the wine glass, release of the ball, and the cap being lowered onto the monster.
This side-by-side comparison should elicit student conversation about what is missing in the failed Rube Goldberg® machine compared to the successful Rube Goldberg® machine. Students may talk about this as force or strength, and hopefully energy. (See Step 16.)
The 3–5 grade band of the K–12 progression for the crosscutting concept of systems and system models states, “Students understand that a system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot.” Using prior Knowledge related to Systems and System Models from the K–2 grade band, students understand that objects and organisms can be described in terms of their parts and that systems in the natural and designed world have parts that work together.
In fourth grade, Systems and System Models is the focus Crosscutting Concept for Life Science where students learn, “A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.” If you are teaching this learning sequence prior to a life science sequence, be sure to refer to this learning sequence so students can build on their understanding of system interactions when exploring systems in other science domains. In this way they will see that the crosscutting concepts really do help in making meaning across all science domains. If students have already experienced a life science learning sequence and have explored interactions in systems from a life science context, be sure to make explicit connections to that learning.
Construct a model to explain the cause and effect action and the movement of energy in a Rube Goldberg® machine system.
In this lesson, it is still okay for students to be struggling with how energy works in relationship to the contact force.
Communicate information about how we know energy is present and that it moves from place to place in predictable patterns.
Review the exit slips to determine if students understood the targeted three dimensions of the lesson or if they need additional support or review in Lesson 3: Collisions and Speed.
Rube Goldberg. (2012, March 10). How to Get Rid of a Mouse! Retrieved from https://www.rubegoldberg.com/artwork/how-to-get-rid-of-a-mouse-2/.
TNTuxedoBlog. (2012, March 10). Tom and Jerry – Rube Goldberg Fail. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvnEBX9aedY&feature=youtu.be.
Waimea Elementary School. (2016, April 25). Audri’s Rube Goldberg Monster Trap. Retrieved from https://www.waimeaelementary.org/apps/video/watch.jsp?v=111342.
RUBE GOLDBERG® is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg, Inc. All materials used with permission. rubegoldberg.com