Fulfills Step 5 of GSUSA Senior Cybersecurity Basics badge requirements.
Info Needed for the badge requirements: Minimization reduces risks, such as removing unnecessary features or deleting unused apps to limit entry points for hackers. Simplicity in design makes products easier to use and problems easier to fix, improving reliability and security. While Rube Goldberg Machines are fun to create and watch, they prioritize complexity over efficiency.
Items Needed
- 4–6 toilet paper or paper towel tubes per machine (more tubes allow for more elaborate designs)
- Masking or scotch tape to share
- Scissors to share
- 1 marble (or another small rolling object, such as a ping pong ball or tennis ball)
- Blank sheet of paper for each scout
- Pencil for each scout
- Prepared photos or videos of Rube Goldberg machines as examples
- (Optional) Additional design materials like rulers, colored pencils, string, yarn, cardboard, boxes, brass tacks, etc.
Instructions
- Show scouts the photos or videos of Rube Goldberg machines to introduce the concept. Explain that they will design and build their own Rube Goldberg machine to move a ball or object from one location to another.
- Scouts can work as a group or divide into pairs or small teams to combine their ideas and create one machine. Give each scout (or scout team) five minutes to sketch their own design idea on a blank sheet of paper.
- Scouts begin gathering materials and building their machines.
- Encourage creativity and complexity—teams can add features like ramps, pulleys, pinwheels, or domino effects.
- If scouts want more of a challenge, suggest goals like:
- Run Time: Make the machine take longer to move the ball.
- Complexity: Add multiple steps or components.
- Once the machines are built, test them to see if they accomplish the task.
- (Optional) If time allows, encourage scouts to improve their machines based on the discussion and test them again.
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