Why Rube Goldberg Has Never Been More Relevant

You would think a cartoonist who did his best work in the 1930’s and 40‘s couldn’t possibly have anything to do with this technology-driven society in which we live.

But, he’s never been more relevant. 

Rube Goldberg (1883 - 1970) was best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways such as the self-operating napkin below:

The Next Generation Science Standards is a 26-state effort to create new education standards that are "rich in content and practice, arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students an internationally benchmarked science education." These are the standards science teachers will focus on in the coming years. 

What does this have to do the an old cartoonist and his crazy contraptions? 

Everything.

Building a Rube Goldberg machine is specifically cited in The Next Generation Science Standards as a way of teaching several science and engineering concepts. Rube's grandchildren operate a foundation that sponsors contests nationally.

The machine the 7th and 8th grades are working on does one simple thing: it turns off a buzzing alarm clock. It has about 15 steps in its chain-reaction of mouse traps, marbles, pulleys, magnets and pins. It’s ridiculously complicated. 

It’s also a fantastic science and engineering project. Listed at the bottom are the ways the project aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards. 

We’ve managed to tie in a lot of the work we did this year: potential and kinetic energy, magnetism, electrical circuits, and more. 

And, best of all, the students have worked really hard to make the whole thing work. We’ll be demonstrating it Saturday at the Pheasant Lane Mall.

Next Generation Science Standards:

Engineering Design (MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3)

• Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

• Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

• Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Energy (HS-PS3-3, MS-PS3-2, MS-PS3-5)

• Design, build, and refine a device that works within given constraints to convert one form of energy into another form of energy
• Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions (MS-PS2-5)

• Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.