3, 2, 1 Blast Off with Springfield Christian School
It starts with an empty board… but after just a couple of months, it becomes an intricate design with lots of moving pieces made entirely from junk – like an old trophy, toy car, cardboard box, plastic tubing, or bouncy balls.
That’s the magic of Engineer in the Classroom, and the design comes alive at the hands of kids who are only in 5th grade.
Engineer in the Classroom, a not-for-profit organization, promotes engineering as a career to grade schools. Today, Engineer in the Classroom reaches five districts in Illinois, including Champaign, Decatur, Paris, Peoria and Springfield.
Through the program, engineering professionals are sent into classrooms to teach basic engineering principles and generate excitement through goal-based, hands-on activities that children can take pride in and show ownership.
Building a Rube Goldberg
O’Shea Project Engineer Devin Powell had never heard of the program until she was approached by Evan Dorks to participate. In late December, she and fellow O’Shea Project Engineer Bryce Gibson began working with a class of 5th graders at Springfield Christian School with the goal of building a Rube Goldberg machine.
“Rube Goldberg was an inventor/engineer who was best known for building gadgets that performed simple functions but in a very messy way – which is essentially the point of the program for the kids,” Devin says. “This ‘rube’ has to be built out of junk that’s laying around the house, so we first met with the class in December to let them know what to collect over Christmas break.”
In January and February, the pair attended the science class once a week and taught a short lesson about engineering such as Newton’s Laws of Motion and simple machines and how they work, like levers, pulleys and inclined planes.
“We start each classroom visit with a presentation,” Bryce says. “Each presentation covers different roles an engineer may assume on any given day. The goal is to try to incite some enthusiasm and introduce them to what engineering is all about.”
Then, it’s time to work on the rube itself.
“This entails thinking of different ideas or steps that we can implement in the rube, problem solving and fixing any steps that have proven unreliable and testing the rub to ensure we get a repeatable outcome,” Bryce shares.
The showcase for all the participating rubes in the local the area took place on February 25 at Lincoln Land Community College. The top three 5th grade classes advance to Regionals in Champaign.
The goal for this year’s rube was that it had at least 10 transfers of energy and had to move a “rocket” at least 6 inches to a landing pad, Devin says.
“For example, in our class’s rube, the ‘rocket’ is resting on a balloon, and in the final step of our rube, a pin falls forward to pop the balloon, dropping the rocket to its landing pad,” she explains. “My favorite step is the balloon pop; I think the surprise noise adds a little something extra.”
For Bryce, the most exciting moment was the class collectively watching their rube run unimpeded from beginning to end for the first time.
“I’ve really enjoyed working with the kids and seeing their excitement while working on the rube. They’ve all been very eager to contribute their ideas and to turn those ideas into reality,” Bryce says.
While their rube didn’t place in the LLCC competition this year, the kids enjoyed a memorable, hands-on engineering experience. And Bryce and Devin hope that they’ve given the students an understanding of what engineers do and simple engineering principles that are incorporated in our day-to-day lives.
“This has been a very rewarding and fun experience,” Devin says. “The kids were very excited to begin this program, to brainstorm ideas and then bring them to life. I would definitely like to be involved again next year!”