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Working our way through the Design Thinking LAUNCH Cycle to build Rube Goldberg Machines.

Look, Listen, and Learn: Read about the man and the machines.  Watch many, many examples. 
Ask Questions: Ask and answer questions through the inquiry process
Understand:  Looking at our Rube Goldberg guidelines, requirements, and task.
Navigate Ideas: Begin planning and designing our machines.
Create a Prototype: Begin constructing based on our ideas.
Highlight and Fix: Fix what is not working.

Launch To The World!

Rube Goldberg:  A complicated a machine that  completes a simple task.  

The photos below show my students in the Navigating stage of the LAUNCH Cycle.  Each group plans a little differently.  Some got right to work drawing and sketching ideas, others started listing step-by-step descriptions of what would happen in their machine, some simply talked things out and had nothing on their paper, others needed materials to think things through.  If there is anything that I have learned it is that planning is so very important and the key to success.  We will continue to plan the next time I see them.

Collaboration and Conversation

Visual Planning

Deep Discussion

Hands-On Planning

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