Friday, March 14, 2008
Laziness is the Mother of Invention
The last few weeks, in freshmen science, we've been studying work, power, and the conservation of energy. Instead of a test, they have a project and a paper for this unit. Their goal was to build a Rube Goldberg device (named after a cartoonist famous for creating unnecessarily complicated machines to complete a simple task). Since I've assigned this project for 3 years now, I figured I should build one of my own. I often find myself having to walk ALL the way across the classroom to turn off the front light switch during class...so I came up with a "simpler" way. It might be a little hard to understand what's going on, so first I filmed an explanation of the steps, backwards--and then the machine in action. Also, for a link to one of the best such devices ever made, click here.
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3 comments:
Hi Chad! That's very cool! I'm impressed. Thanks for sharing that! How's the semester going for you? Did you or will you do anything special during spring break?
Katie Stephen
Chad...Cool. But it sure would have been a lot easier to just turn off the light switch! Your students are blessed to have you as their teacher.
Aunt Gail
Pretty cool machine there, Chad. I love it. In our youth room at the church we have not one, but two double light switches that we have to flip off and on several times during each of our youth worship services. For a while now I've been wondering how to simplify the process of shutting them off. You have inspired me! :) Perhaps we could make a little machine of our own.
Great work Chad! You're a good and fun teacher!
Blessings to you, cousin!
Jeff
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