TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

Project-based learning has become popular over the past couple of decades, primarily due to its potential to increase motivation, engagement, and teamwork. This is especially true in first-year and capstone courses. However, the middle years of engineering programs have seen far less innovation. We had students participate in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest as part of a junior-level mechanical engineering Dynamics of Machine Elements course. The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is an international competition devoted to the design and demonstration of contraptions that complete a simple everyday task in an absurdly complex manner. The competition rules require that all machines have an observable theme and/or story integrated throughout the machines.