Progressively Building a Rube Goldberg Machine

Trish Tsoiasue is an advocate for a few things focused around the Maker Movement because she believes this 2014 Time Magazine article - it reflects her own observations and her own personal experiences. Amongst these is Rube Goldberg skills learning. She is working to implement the Rube-inator (Rubeinator) her invention and an environment for getting started in Rube Goldberg.

It's not easy, making a Rube Goldberg machine. It sure is fun, though! When I've been out to events, such as the LA Makerfaire, there is a lot of interest. Getting from being interested to acting on that interest is always work. With Rube Goldberg contraptions, it seems like much more work. I've made it my goal to help folks get started, and I've run a regional Rube Goldberg competition since 2023.

Rube Goldberg machine creators - inventors - have to take the things they find around them and implement them in a machine that does a simple task ... in the most complicated way they can - repeatably.

It's a unique, extremely playful, engineering challenge.

Here is our machine developed at Trellis Learning in La Cañada this past spring. It is inspired in part by the very popular OK Go video "This too shall pass".

I don't think we'll ever reproduce that video exactly - it's too messy, and a little hard to clean up after a test execution. However, there are elements that we (The royal We) would like to figure out how to implement. What do you think? Can you reproduce the OK Go video?

We had a lot of fun working on one of those elements this spring. I brought in one of the typewriters from my antique typewriter collection (yes, I have a small collection of antique typewriters). I could only dream that the students would figure out how to put it into action. Luckily, I had brought in enough other materials (stuff, junk) that the students could put together into their creation.

I've decided it's sufficiently fun and interesting to figure out how to take it on the road to engage with other middle and possibly high school students who might contribute to the machine. It will be part of the Rube-inator.

I will use it in La Cañada at Trellis Learning in June (at their Summer Camp), in Long Beach at Makersville in July (at our Summer Camp) and at Bricks and Minifigs in Lomita in August (at the Makerspace we are starting there).

I will take it to the Long Beach Comic-Con in August, to the LA Makerfaire / City of STEM event next April, and to schools and parks for events in which we participate.

It will adjust as we work to make it all battery powered and more repeatable, and to extend it beyond its current capabilities.

To keep apprised of the progress of this machine as it develops, you should subscribe to my Slice of Life YouTube Channel Squigglemom. It's not all Rube Goldberg development, but it all goes there first.

Enjoy the video, then visit us at one of our outreaches in summer, or contact me at Patricia at Makersvilleservices . org to learn more about the Rube Goldberg competition we'll be hosting in March, 2026. To get started in your journey to starting a team, visit the Rube Goldberg website: http://rubegoldberg.org