Program

A Rube Goldberg-inspired, hands-on, STEAM-Powered romp into the world of building complicated chain reactions to accomplish simple tasks. Artist/engineer Jay Mankita demonstrates best practices for building our own contraptions – inspiring students to build @home, from their own toys and household materials. Jay assembles and demonstrates his favorite machine parts live, and adds video examples of some of his more complex builds.

Participants will make their own working models of kinetic machine parts using readily available toys and household objects, exploring through play, the basic principles of force and motion that are expressed through interactions between these objects.

The workshop features some of Jay's favorite chain reaction parts, and a primer on how he puts those parts together. Families will have gathered some basic materials, and may have already begun building from the pre-session activity resources provided. Just a few examples are:

Track Feeders from hot-wheels tracks, hand-made cardboard tracks, rubber bands, and pencils, and hardcover books.

Rolling Cones from drinking cups, tinker toys, or fruits and vegetables

Carousels from cans, pencils, pens, rubber bands, and popsicle sticks

Catapults from plastic spoons

Tetherballs from pencils and clay, or broomsticks, or mop handles

Ball Bounces from ping-pong balls, or rubber balls

Domino Rallies from dominoes of course, or books, or playing cards, clothespins, Legos, or CD cases,

Mini Zip-Lines from string, key-rings, and action figures