Enrolling Now for 2026-27 School Year.
Enrolling Now for 2026-27 School Year.
If you want to help your child have fun, exercise their creativity, and learn about simple machines, why not help them create a Rube Goldberg machine? This post will explain what these machines are and share some easy Rube Goldberg machine ideas for kids to help you get started.
A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption with a series of chain reactions that accomplish a simple task in a delightfully convoluted way. To understand what a Rube Goldberg machine is, it may help to know about Rube Goldberg himself. Rube Goldberg has become synonymous with elaborate machines featuring chain reactions that overcomplicate a basic task, but Rube Goldberg wasn’t an inventor — he was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist.
Goldberg had an engineering degree, which, combined with his art skills, helped him delight people with his crazy mechanical creations. In the comics, these machines were invented by a character called Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. The devices may have been fictional, but they were designed to work and were labeled in the style of United States patent applications. In the early 20th century, as the machine age was taking off, Goldberg’s cartoons satirized society’s obsession with all things mechanical.
Today, children and adults alike enjoy making their own Rube Goldberg machines. Creating these machines can help develop learners’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills. It can also encourage their creativity and collaboration skills.
You may be familiar with several famous Rube Goldberg machines throughout history. The board game Mouse Trap is one of the most recognizable examples. It involves players working together to create a chain of events using slides, steps, buckets, and other pieces to catch the opponent’s mouse. Hasbro released the game in 1963, and it has since become a classic for family game nights.
In 2010, the American rock band OK Go made history with the “This Too Shall Pass” music video featuring an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine. The camera follows chain reactions involving dominoes, pianos, cars, chairs, shopping carts, and more for nearly four minutes before the final event — different colored paint splattering on each of the four OK Go band members. The video has more than 77 million views on YouTube.
To create a Rube Goldberg machine, start with the end of the chain reaction and work your way backward to figure out how you’d like to get from Point A to Point B. For example, if you want the final action to be flipping a light switch, you first need to decide how you’ll push up on the switch, then work backward so that each movement is caused by the one before it.
Flipping on a light switch is just one idea. Here are a few other simple Rube Goldberg machine ideas to help you choose the task your machine will accomplish:
You can use everyday items as building blocks for this project. Common materials for a simple Rube Goldberg machine include:
To achieve the final task, you may need to make adjustments or use additional materials throughout the building process. Always ensure your child prioritizes safety, especially when using heavy or sharp objects.
Rube Goldberg machines are, by definition, chain-reaction machines. Each part of the machine is a simple mechanical setup that applies its own force. You can create these machines using humble household materials and basic physics principles.
Let’s look at a few examples of mechanical devices kids can put together to create their own Rube Goldberg machine.
Marble runs, or marble chutes, are a fun and effective choice for Rube Goldberg machines. If this is the first step of your machine, you can drop a marble into the start of a chute or track. If this step comes somewhere in the middle of the device, a previous action can push the marble into the chute. When the marble emerges from the end of the chute, it should cause the next chain reaction.
You can use a plastic racecar track for your marble run, or you can cut something like a wrapping paper tube or a PVC pipe to create one. Keep in mind that if you can see the marble as it runs along its track, it adds to the fun of watching your machine work.
Levers are a common feature in Rube Goldberg machines. One of the easiest ways to teach a child about this simple machine is to point to the seesaw at the playground. When you apply pressure to one end of a rigid bar resting on a fulcrum, the other end should rise up.
For example, at the end of your marble run, the marble could roll off a ledge into a cup on one end of a lever. If the marble is heavy enough, it’ll push that end of the lever down, elevating the item at the other end. That other item could bump into something, triggering the following chain reaction. You can create your own lever using basic materials like a binder clip and a ruler.
When most people think of a Rube Goldberg machine, there’s a good chance they picture a series of dominoes falling. In fact, dominoes are so strongly associated with chain reactions that we often use the term “domino effect” to mean a chain reaction of events.
When you want to apply force to an object in your machine, you can set up a line of dominoes. By correctly spacing the dominoes, you ensure that pushing the first domino over causes the whole line of dominoes to fall, with the last domino applying the force needed to lead to the next step in your machine.
To help your child have a positive experience creating their own Rube Goldberg machine, follow these five tips:
Building a Rube Goldberg machine with your kids can spark their curiosity, pique their interest in STEM activities, and offer a plethora of learning benefits.
Rube Goldberg machines allow kids to flex their creativity and foster their imagination as they dream up ways to achieve the final task, whether that’s turning on a light switch or ringing a bell. They get to test different chain reactions to see what works. It is a great exercise in problem-solving.
Another perk of creating a Rube Goldberg machine is getting to practice resourcefulness. Your child has to brainstorm unique and unconventional ways to use everyday items, helping them see the world around them differently and gain a unique perspective. Working within limitations allows them to innovate more creatively.
These machines are a fun, engaging way to introduce your child to fundamental physical concepts. Kids can explore foundational principles, such as:
A basic understanding of these concepts can make it easier to build on their physics knowledge in the future.
The building process helps children practice their planning skills with reverse engineering. They get to organize a series of small events that rely on each other to work correctly, exercising their understanding of logic and sequencing. A Rube Goldberg machine is also an engaging way to gain a foundational understanding of spatial reasoning.
Creating a Rube Goldberg machine is a great opportunity to explore the scientific method, helping children understand that achieving a specific result can take trial and error. Break down each of the following phases with your child:
Help them understand that they’ll need to test different orders of events and exercise resilience if a layout doesn’t work as intended.
At Commonwealth Charter Academy, we believe parents should be a key part of the equation in their child’s learning — and that’s possible with our engaging cyber school curriculum. If you’re interested in joining the CCA community, take a moment to learn more about how we involve families in the learning process and enroll today.
Enrolling Now for 2026-27 School Year.
