Participants at the Boys & Girls Club and the Collinsville YMCA discovered the world of Rube Goldberg contraptions. A noted cartoonist, Goldberg created complicated solutions to complete simple tasks. During the first two sessions, students worked in groups to build simple machines using Legos. On the last day, students traded their Legos for everyday materials found around their home to build their very own Goldberg-inspired contraption.

After a brief review of simple machines, students identified simple machines in cartoons.

Next, students built a lever and discovered its three components (fulcrum, effort, and load).

Using the lever, students participated in a Lego flipping contest.

Then students were given the task of building an inclined plane and use accompanying items to get a ball into a cup. This was harder than they thought!

The students were divided into groups and assigned a simple machine to build with common household items or other responsibilities such as figuring out how to connect the simple machines and how to start the chain reaction. After the simple machines were built, all of the machines were combined to form one large contraption.