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=Day 1: Simple Machines=



**What is a Simple Machine?**

A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. In general, they can be defined as the simplest mechanisms that use mechanical advantage (also called leverage) to multiply force.

**The 7 simple machines are:** Gears Inclined Plane Lever Pulley Screw Wedge Wheel and Axle

Click [|here] to go to the EdHeads website and explore the Robot's house (pictured below).



Want more information on Simple Machines?

The [|Inventor's Toolbox] has great information and examples. This [|How Stuff Works Video] shows a brief review of Simple Machines. The [|Harcourt School Publishers Game] helps you identify Simple Machines in the world.





=Day 2: Compound Machines=


 * Simple Machines Video -**



A compound machine consists of two or more simple machines put together. In fact, most machines are compound machines. Their mechanical advantage is far greater, so compound machines can do more difficult jobs than simple machines alone. Some examples are a bicycle and a pair of scissors.

Click [|here] to go to the Robot's tool shed to learn more about compound machines.

Click [|here] to help the Robot solve the Odd Machine (pictured below). Have you ever built a [|Fantastic Contraption] before? Only an expert can beat all 21 levels (without cheating) of this fun game that uses compound machines.

=Day 3: Intro to Rube Goldberg=

Who is Rube Goldberg?

Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author. Reuben Lucius Goldberg (Rube Goldberg) was born in San Francisco. His father, a practical man, insisted he go to college to become an engineer. After graduating from University of California Berkeley, Rube went to work as an engineer with the City of San Francisco Water and Sewers Department.

He continued drawing, and after six months convinced his father that he had to work as an artist. He soon got a job as an office boy in the sports department of a San Francisco newspaper. He kept submitting drawings and cartoons to his editor, until he was finally published. An outstanding success, he moved from San Francisco to New York drawing daily cartoons for the Evening Mail. A founding member of the National Cartoonist Society, a political cartoonist and a Pulitzer Prize winner, Rube was a beloved national figure as well as an often-quoted radio and television personality during his sixty-year professional career.

Through his "INVENTIONS", Rube Goldberg discovered difficult ways to achieve easy results. His cartoons were, as he said, symbols of man's capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish minimal results. Rube believed that there were two ways to do things: the simple way and the hard way, and that a surprisingly number of people preferred doing things the hard way.


 * __ What is a Rube Goldberg Invention? __**

A Rube Goldberg contraption takes a simple task and makes it extraordinarily complicated. They often included an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and live animals. He had solutions for How To Get The Cotton Out Of An Aspirin Bottle, imagined a Self-Operating Napkin, and created a Simple Alarm Clock – to name just a few of his hilariously depicted drawings.


 * __ What is a Rube-toon? __**

A Rube-toon is a cartoon drawing of a Rube Goldberg contraption. Rube Goldberg used these comics to poke fun at people who choose to do things the hard way by taking something simple and making it complex. They are similar to political cartoons in this way.



Can you make the changes necessary to help fix the Rube Goldberg-style machine in [|Goldburger to Go]?

Try completing all 30 levels of [|Dynamic Systems].

Try to build science-related contraptions in [|Power Play].

Want another fun Rube-Goldberg style challenge? Try to create contraptions using the [|Magic Pen].

This is a Rube Goldberg style cartoon or "Rube-toon." See if you can follow the steps.

=Day 4: Start Rube-toons=





=Day 5: Finish Rube-toons=

Student Examples:

Using PowerPoint -

Using Frames -

media type="file" key="Finished Rube-toon frames 4 movie.MOV" width="660" height="660"

=Follow-Up:=