about our project
For our first project as freshmen of STEM Marin, everyone in my class created a Rube Goldberg machine. Our machine is called Breakfast Paradise. Breakfast Paradise was made by Nick Brandis, Matthew Cassidy, Brittany Fung, and I. Throughout our machine we implemented an overarching theme of breakfast food. We represented this with bacon ramps, a donut screw, and various pictures of breakfast foods within the project. In addition, the final step of our machine is dropping a piece of toast into a toaster. Our machine was built onto a vertically standing 4x4 foot piece of plywood. There is a total of eleven steps in our machine, including a wedge, multiple inclined planes, a screw, a pulley system, and a level, utilizing five of the six simple machines. Our entire creation took roughly sixteen hours to construct.
Physics
The physics concepts we analyzed were force, mechanical advantage, acceleration, kinetic energy, velocity, momentum, and potential energy. Here are some of our calculations:
MAterials
We used many different materials in our project. Most of it was made out of wood, but there was also various types of plastic, rubber, and metal.
Art
There were also multiple art elements represented throughout the project. Some of these are highlighted below.
Rhythm: Movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. We used rhythm by making many machines operate in the same general direction.
Contrast: The state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition or close association. To create contrast, we used bright tennis balls with a dark backdrop, creating a visually appealing aspect to our project.
Variation: A change or difference in condition, amount, or level, typically with certain limits. Variation was used with all the different steps and machines, none exactly like the other.
Proportion and Balance: Card board and wood were each used a precise amount to try to create proportions and balance.
All four of us came together to create unity in our machine. These art concepts are called The Principals of Design. Learning about The Principals of Design early will help us tremendously in future projects. We now know what is necessary to create a visually appealing project, while keeping in mind that function comes first.
Our roughly 16 hours of work was broken into 9 separate work days. Although the majority of this time was spent doing hands on construction, this time was also used to dream up the idea, and experiment with multiple different ideas, all with the main goal of the best machine possible. Over the course of our project, we made a detailed construction log of what we did day to day below:
There was many things we could have improved on. One of them was the pulley system. My group made it in such a way that as one side which was attached to a cup descended, the opposing side, also attached to a cup scraped against the descending cup as it made its ascension. This occurrence made our machine fail more than anything else. We good have improved upon this by adding spacing. Another pit of ours was the lever system. The original design of the lever was flawed in the sense that the design created friction between the lever and the plywood. This caused the lever to catch and sometimes not work. We could have improved this by coming up with a new design without the extra friction.
. The Rube Goldberg project was very helpful with expanding my knowledge of physics concepts, especially acceleration. Calculating acceleration of various things like inclined planes and screws made it much easier to understand how acceleration works. I I think this is because of the hands-on nature of the project. My group did a good job on our screw. It was very difficult to make, and was very fragile. Our screw worked practically without fail and was a key feature to our design. This projects really helped me become a better group member. I feel that at the beginning of the project, i found myself frequently not knowing what I could do to help. This project made me realize that I need to do better to be a productive member of my group. I need to ask my fellow group members what i can do to help whenever i find myself without something to work on. I also should try to be more of a leader. In my next project I am going to try to step up and present some solid ideas to my group members. This is sometimes challenging for me because I am often unsure if my ideas would be helpful. I should voice them regardless of if i think they will be used, in an effort to contribute. All of this has made me grow as a person very much, specifically in my work ethic. Overall, the Rube Goldberg project was very enjoyable as our first project of STEM, and very helpful in understanding physics concepts.
Breakfast Machine in action:
Rhythm: Movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. We used rhythm by making many machines operate in the same general direction.
Contrast: The state of being strikingly different from something else in juxtaposition or close association. To create contrast, we used bright tennis balls with a dark backdrop, creating a visually appealing aspect to our project.
Variation: A change or difference in condition, amount, or level, typically with certain limits. Variation was used with all the different steps and machines, none exactly like the other.
Proportion and Balance: Card board and wood were each used a precise amount to try to create proportions and balance.
All four of us came together to create unity in our machine. These art concepts are called The Principals of Design. Learning about The Principals of Design early will help us tremendously in future projects. We now know what is necessary to create a visually appealing project, while keeping in mind that function comes first.
Our roughly 16 hours of work was broken into 9 separate work days. Although the majority of this time was spent doing hands on construction, this time was also used to dream up the idea, and experiment with multiple different ideas, all with the main goal of the best machine possible. Over the course of our project, we made a detailed construction log of what we did day to day below:
There was many things we could have improved on. One of them was the pulley system. My group made it in such a way that as one side which was attached to a cup descended, the opposing side, also attached to a cup scraped against the descending cup as it made its ascension. This occurrence made our machine fail more than anything else. We good have improved upon this by adding spacing. Another pit of ours was the lever system. The original design of the lever was flawed in the sense that the design created friction between the lever and the plywood. This caused the lever to catch and sometimes not work. We could have improved this by coming up with a new design without the extra friction.
. The Rube Goldberg project was very helpful with expanding my knowledge of physics concepts, especially acceleration. Calculating acceleration of various things like inclined planes and screws made it much easier to understand how acceleration works. I I think this is because of the hands-on nature of the project. My group did a good job on our screw. It was very difficult to make, and was very fragile. Our screw worked practically without fail and was a key feature to our design. This projects really helped me become a better group member. I feel that at the beginning of the project, i found myself frequently not knowing what I could do to help. This project made me realize that I need to do better to be a productive member of my group. I need to ask my fellow group members what i can do to help whenever i find myself without something to work on. I also should try to be more of a leader. In my next project I am going to try to step up and present some solid ideas to my group members. This is sometimes challenging for me because I am often unsure if my ideas would be helpful. I should voice them regardless of if i think they will be used, in an effort to contribute. All of this has made me grow as a person very much, specifically in my work ethic. Overall, the Rube Goldberg project was very enjoyable as our first project of STEM, and very helpful in understanding physics concepts.
Breakfast Machine in action: