I'm teaching physics at four different levels right now. What a mission! I'm getting all tangled up in which ones are doing rotational motion and which ones are doing basic energy transformations.
But this is my favourite thing to teach, hands down. For the Y10s, we've decided to make Rube Goldberg machines a focus of how we explore energy and forces. We're going to start with how real people make them....
I found this amazing game for the students to use, just to embed the idea in their heads. And then, I am going to get them to play Fantastic Contraption. My Y13s got completely addicted to this game last year, it was so awesome.
Then I'm thinking that I might get them to make their own design for a Rube Goldberg machine. We don't have the time or space to really do it justice, so I'm thinking that we might ask the students to make the machine using small teams, using their own bodies and maybe two or three reusable props. Then we can take their designa nd analyse it for energy transformations and then for forces. I think it could be really awesome.
Next year, in the new scheme, I think I might expand on this, and actually have a two week block on making a Rube Goldberg machine. Wouldn't that be cool?
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