Year 5 IGNITE Students Master Rube Goldberg Machines

November 22, 2024

The IGNITE program offers a dynamic, forward-thinking curriculum tailored to academically gifted students. It sparks curiosity and a love for learning through engaging activities that foster creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Blending STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. With the creative arts, the program provides a unique platform for students to excel in their strengths while discovering new passions.

The Year 5 IGNITE students have been busy exploring the scientific and engineering principles behind Rube Goldberg machines, using their creativity and innovation to design and build their own. These whimsical contraptions take a simple task and transform it into a wonderfully complicated process, sparking endless fun and curiosity. The students have loved the challenge of combining science, problem-solving, and imagination to bring their unique machines to life!

Why do you think the IGNITE program is so important?

“The IGNITE program is both fun and intellectually stimulating, encouraging gifted students to think divergently and explore creative solutions beyond conventional boundaries. By challenging them to tackle complex problems and think outside the box, the program nurtures their academic growth while also fostering critical thinking, resilience and collaboration skills. Additionally, it provides a supportive environment where like-minded peers can connect, helping students thrive socially and develop their full potential.” Frieda McLoughlin, IGNITE Teacher

Student Perspectives

What aspects of the project did you find most challenging and rewarding?

“We studied lots of diverse topics in the lead-up to building our machines, like types of energy, simple machines, and biomimicry. For example, we learned about SunBOTs that mimic sunflowers to improve solar panels. At first, these topics were challenging, but they started linking together and helped us design and understand our machines.” Olivia (whose group designed a machine to pack a backpack).

What challenges did you face during the construction phase, and how did you address them?

“Our group had lots of ideas but implementing them within the time constraints was tricky. Often, our prototypes didn’t work as expected, so we had to redesign and test them multiple times. It required resilience, but we had so much fun working through the problems.” Ivy (whose group designed a machine to dispense hand sanitiser).

Featured, IGNITE, RubeGoldergMachines, STEM, StudentInnovation, Year5

Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.