STEM Roundtable and Rube Goldberg Machine Contest – Resource of the Week -10-22-18

So, I am always on the lookout for interesting STEM podcasts.  As I was browsing, I stumbled upon the STEM Roundtable podcast by Joe Corleto.  The podcast is fairly new and 8 episodes have been released as of the date of this post.  Joe seems like a very down to earth guy and delivers his podcast in a relaxed manner.  This is actually refreshing! It seems like the landscape of STEM media is filled with Type A personalities who often deploy a wild and zany approach as they deliver their content at lightning speed.

Episode #6 caught my interest in particular because it is all about how Joe set-up a Rube Goldberg Machine challenge with the students in his class.  For those of you who don’t know Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who drew comical illustrations of very complex inventions designed to complete very simple and mundane tasks.  The goal of the educational activity is to get students to think about design and engineering, in a creative hands-on approach.  Joe provides a basic overview of his lesson on the podcast and also has the lesson plan available for download at “Teachers pay Teachers”.

You can listen to the Rube Goldberg Episode by clicking the play button below.

To buy his lesson plan, visit Teachers pay Teachers at: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stem-Roundtable

To visit the STEM Roundtable website to learn about more of his podcasts, click his logo below.

Now all of this got me even more interested Rube Goldberg and I discovered that there has been a national competition happening for more than 20 years!  This year’s competition requires students to put money in a piggy bank.  To learn how to enter your students and get more info click the logo below: