Salem High School

By: Brianna Bobo

Elizabeth Lowden wanted to make her class more hands-on. Lowden began this process by having students create a Rube Goldberg project. The project serves as the ICP (Intro to chemistry and physics) midterm and is  worth 180 points. 

“Rube Goldberg machines are a great way for students to put what they’ve learned into action,” said Lowden. 

ICP classes have spent the semester discussing topics like momentum, velocity, forces, energy and simple machines. Rube Goldberg puts all of those concepts together. 

“This allows students to show off what they’ve learned in a fun and interactive way,” said Lowden.

The Rube Goldberg project teaches students how to manipulate force and energy to achieve a goal. It also teaches students tenacity; in order to be successful, students need a can-do attitude and a willingness to try to learn and fail and pick up the pieces and try again. Tenacity is a skill that will get students far in life. 

Students were able to choose their own goal for the project. Some of the projects dropped marbles into a cup, others popped a balloon, and one even watered a plant. Students had a week to plan and gather material and a week to build the machines and record their project video.  

Junior Dystiny Spicer got a 100% on the project but it took an effort to get there. She encountered failures regarding putting a needle on a marble because it kept puncturing the styrofoam cup. Spicer added a wheel and axle, which led to a success in the project.

“Working with a group is much easier than working by yourself, because not all the stress of the project will go on you,” she said. 

Spicer explained that others’ opinions on a project are very important because it aids in manufacturing the project correctly.

“During this project I learned hands-on all the concepts we’ve learned this semester,” she said.

Sophomore Saphira Jarvis felt stressed about the project with the timeframe and being able to get the supplies and materials her group needed.

 “I learned to use simple machines from this project, and to use all different types to make it work,” she said. “Working with my group was good but sometimes other people in my group weren’t on task and helping out. We could’ve done better, if we had worked together more. But I, overall, learned it wasn’t hard to do and I learned about simple machines while doing a project.”