Format
Note: This program changes in shape, style, and content, based on the grade and size of the group, among other factors.
1. If students have already seen Jay's presentation program , we jump right in to building. Otherwise, we begin with an introduction to Jay and a virtual tour of his maker space, through which Jay shares his passion for engineering, discovery and play.
2. Each class features several of Jay's favorite techniques from toys & household materials. Students will have already gathered materials, and may have begun building from the pre-session activity resources provided. Some examples are:
Booktop Ball Runs made from hardcover books
Track Feeders from hot-wheels tracks, hand-made cardboard tracks, rubber bands, and pencils
Rolling Cones from drinking cups, tinker toys, or fruits and vegetables
Carousels from cans, pencils, pens, rubber bands, and popsicle sticks
Catapults from plastic spoons
Tetherballs from broomsticks, mop handles, or standing lamps
Ball Bounces from ping-pong balls, or rubber balls
Tube-Tape Wobbles”from the inside of a scotch-tape roll, and half a cardboard tube
Domino Rallies from dominoes of course, or books, or playing cards, or CD cases,
Mini Zip-Lines from string, key-rings, and action figures, and many others.
Kids build at their own pace, and according to their own abilities.
Objectives
Learning Objective #1:
Students will be able to make their own working models of kinetic machine parts using readily available toys & repurposed household objects, and will identify and explain basic principles of force and motion that are expressed through these objects.
Learning Objective #2:
Students will connect art and engineering, through hands-on play, & exploration of tools and techniques in the designing, building, and testing of overcomplicated Rube Goldberg Machines, experiencing formative assessment in a fun, fulfilling way.
Learning Objective #3
Students will experience and generalize the engineering values of learning through trial and error, addressing problems from different perspectives, cooperative teamwork, and basic systems thinking; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Standards Alignment
National Standards
Cause and effect K-2
Cause and effect 3-5
Cause and effect 6-8
Cause and effect 9-12
Scale, proportion, and quantity K-2
Scale, proportion, and quantity 3-5
Scale, proportion, and quantitiy 6-8
Systems and system models K-2
Systems and system models 3-5
Systems and system models 6-8
Energy and matter K-2
Energy and matter 3-5
Energy and matter 6-8
Structure and function K-2
Structure and function 6-8
Stability and change K-2
Stability and change 3-5
Stability and change 6-8
PS3A 3-5 -- Definitions of energy
PS3A 6-8 -- Definitions of energy
PS3B 3-5 -- Conservation of energy and energy transfer
PS3B 6-8 -- Conservation of energy and energy transfer
PS3C 3-5 -- Relationship between energy and forces
PS3C 6-8 -- Relationship between energy and forces
PS3C K-2 -- Relationship between energy and forces