Learning Goals
Students will be able to define a Rube Goldberg design problem using measurable criteria and constraints to distinguish desired performance from limits on materials, time, cost, and safety.
Students will be able to analyze observations and measurements of moving objects to explain the relationship between an object's speed and its energy.
Students will be able to predict and explain energy changes during collisions and transfers involving motion, sound, light, heat, or electric currents to show how energy moves through a system.
Students will be able to generate and evaluate multiple chain-reaction designs using a simple decision matrix to compare how well each design meets the criteria and constraints.
Students will be able to test and optimize a chain-reaction prototype using repeated-trial data and feedback to improve energy conversion, reliability, and task completion.
Students will be able to communicate and justify engineering decisions and team contributions using scientific evidence to demonstrate shared responsibility, perseverance, and growth.
Products
Individual Energy Engineering Design Notebook
Each student will document the problem, criteria and constraints, energy investigations, collision predictions, at least three annotated design concepts, a simple decision matrix, test evidence, and an evidence-based revision proposal. The notebook will also explain how the student's original thinking, feedback, and team contributions influenced the final machine.
Tested Rube Goldberg Machine and Energy Expo Technical Presentation
Each team will build a safe chain-reaction machine that completes a defined task, test it in repeated trials, and revise it at least once using performance data. At the Energy Expo, the team will demonstrate the machine and present its labeled energy-transfer model, evaluated design alternatives, trade-offs, evidence of improvement, limitations, and shared decision-making.
No rubric has been generated yet.