Innovation in Action News

Over the past three days, Centerview Elementary hosted STEM Design Days. For two and a half hours, grade levels had the opportunity to learn about the SLP 3D Design Process: Discover, Design and Deliver, and used it to create Rube Goldberg machines.

Rube Goldberg machines are machines intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overcomplicated fashion. Centerview STEM Specialist Desirae Gillis challenged grade levels to make sure their Rube Goldberg machine had a specific number of steps. Kindergarten students were challenged to have at least three steps, while third and fourth graders were challenged to have at least nine steps in their machines.

During the first half hour, students worked through the discover phase, learning about the SLP 3D Design Process and simple machines. In the design phase, students worked in small groups to ideate and draw what their Rube Goldberg machines might look like.

Once students had a design drawn, they were given cardboard, string, tape, paper cups and ping pong balls to build their prototype. Students refined their designs based on what worked, with the end goal of having the ping pong ball make it through all the different steps in their machines.  

View more photos on the Centerview Facebook page

Step 1: Discover

 

Step 2: Design

 

Step 3: Deliver