Search through our library of courses, select a category you might be interested in, use the search bar, or filter options on the left side of the page.
SORT:

Turn Your Students' Love of RGM into a Career

Join Jennifer George and Brent Bushnell to discuss how to cultivate the next generation of inventors through joy and creativity. Brent is the Chairman and CoFounder of Two Bit Circus, which deploys STEAM-based programs focused on creativity and invention to inspire students around the world. Brent’s a Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow, a supporter of Clowns Without Borders and publishes on Twitter @brentbushnell; he and members of his team were part of the extraordinary build for OK-Go's viral Rube Goldberg music video for "This Too Shall Pass." Jennifer and Brent will lead an insightful talk about how kids who love building, tinkering, and problem solving can turn those interests into a career.

Rube Goldberg Cartoon Contest: Putting the 'A' in STEAM!

Join Jennifer George as she leads a lively conversation with illustrators Abby Merrill and Ed Steckley as they describe and quite literally illustrate how to draw Rube Goldberg Machines. Once your students have mastered invention drawing, take learning to the next level with the Rube Goldberg Crazy Contraption Cartoon Contest. We will discuss how the contest can add the Art into STEAM learning and how your students can enter.

Rube Goldberg Machines with iBlocks

Learn how to use the iBlocks framework to guide your students through the Engineering Design Process, first building context and understanding around Rube Goldberg, simple machines, and then how they come together in a Rube Goldberg Machine. IBlocks content leads students through the planning, design, and construction of their machine and finally, the testing and evaluation, where students learn the importance of refining, remixing, and redesigning.

How to Integrate Technology into Your Rube Goldberg Machine

In this session, David Fox, creator of the “Rube Works” app, will talk about bringing the Rube Goldberg experience to an app in a fun and inspirational way. Alefiya Master from MAD-learn will talk about the importance of app development in STEM education. Twelve live attendees of our Rube Goldberg OTIS series will be selected to receive Rube Goldberg early reader chapter books for their school libraries!

Rube Goldberg Machines in the Digital World of Minecraft

Join the team from Rube Goldberg Inc and Minecraft global ambassadors they discuss bringing STEAM into the digital world of Minecraft through Rube Goldberg Machines. They will discuss the minecraft.edu tutorials based on simple machines and how those lessons will culminate in a digital Rube Goldberg Machine Contest with NASEF set in the world of Minecraft. 

Rube Goldberg Machines in the Classroom

In this session, Jennifer George shares how teaching Rube Goldberg in the classroom levels the playing field for all learners of all ages. She will talk about the history of the Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation & Creativity, the origins of the Rube Goldberg Machine and the machine contests that the family has run for over 35 years.  She will also introduce a variety of new offerings that exist for all grade levels that want to get started creating Rube Goldberg Machines in the classroom. 

Building an Enrichment Program with Rube Goldberg

Join the world’s foremost expert on all things Rube Goldberg, Jennifer George, as she discusses why the overly complicated machines that bear Rube’s name remain a key component of enrichment and STEAM programs in schools across the country. Then, learn from our curriculum team on how to structure a Rube Goldberg-centered enrichment program, and how we add technology, advanced literacy, and career exploration to a K12 Rube Goldberg program.

Rube Goldberg Machine Contest Finals - 2019

View highlights of the official 2019 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest finals. Students were given the task to "Put Money in a Piggy Bank." 

A Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC) is an event where students of all ages compete with machines that they have imagined, designed, and created in a fun and competitive forum. The competitions encourage teamwork and out-of-the-box problem solving, in a fresh learning environment and level playing field. All you need is a good Imagination and a pile of junk!

Rube Goldberg Machine Contest Finals - 2018

View highlights of the 2018 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest Finals. Students were given the task to "Pour a Bowl of Cereal."

Since 1988, tens of thousands of students have competed in annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contests° where they are challenged to build the wackiest, working Rube Goldberg Machine that completes a common task.

In the structured environment of the competitions, these contraptions are more than just Rube Goldberg Machines. They inspire communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. They hone skills like math, physics, and chemistry. On a formal basis, this learning experience falls under the umbrella of STEM/STEAM (Science, Technology Engineering, Art, and Math) education. 

Rube Goldberg Sizzle Reel

A Rube Goldberg Machine (RGM) is a crazy contraption which accomplishes a simple task in the most complicated and funniest way possible! Based on the “invention” cartoons of the famous, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist, Rube Goldberg. His drawings and imagined machines are at the heart of the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. They use everyday items (mostly junk!), they tell a story, and most important of all — they make you laugh!