Hello people I’m back!

For a month we worked on a really big project. This project used all are time in and out of class. We were making Rube-Goldberg machines about important revolutions throughout history. These are machines that incorporate random objects which continue to create reactions in one another. The goal of this project was to create a machine that would tell the story of a certain revolution from history through a bunch of metaphors. We called them Metaphor Machines. This project used Humanities, Science, and Math time to work on. Each item on our machine is a metaphor for an important event in our assigned revolutions. Our revolution was America Revolution. Our machine also had to have a steampunk ascetic to it. Steampunk is basically just anything retro and aesthetic turned into something more futuristic. If you are still unclear what steampunk is and why we were learning Steampunk I did a whole post on it.

For this project I worked with Maggie, Owen, and Jamie. To get started we researched our revolution. We learned all about it’s causes and consequences. If you don’t know anything about the revolution I suggest you read about it because it is a very interesting subject and I’m only giving you a small rundown about it. The American Revolution started around 1765 and continued until 1783. After British colonists moved to America, the British started ordering the colonists to pay higher taxes even though they weren’t given rights and representation back in Britain. The colonists revolted, which started the American Revolutionary War. The colonists won and gained independence from Britain.

Here is our video explaining our machine and showing all the different parts.

Our machine started off by a marble knocking a American coin and then going down a ramp made of toilet paper roles. The coin goes down a second ramp and lands in a container on a large wheel which we call the “Tax Wheel”. The marble that went down the other ramp comes back around the same time and goes on a small platform that starts the Tax Wheel. The wheel goes down a fixed path carrying the coin and drops the coin off on a platform which has a teabag balancing very carefully on top. The teabag is filled with money to act like a weight. The teabag gets knocked over onto the lever which when activated completes an electric circuit. This then activates a set of lights on an American flag and a also starts up a speaker that plays the American national anthem. All of these have metaphors to relate them to our revolution which we explain in the video.

I learned a lot about when doing this project. This project helped me with my communication competency, personal competency, and thinking competency. I was really able to collaborate, connect, and engage with my group members. I was self determined always wanting to do more. In the end we were able to generate a piece of work that was amazing.

If I could go back and redo this project I would only change the full size sketches. This project became my favourite project.It has been my favourite project because the things I learnt got stuck in my head and impacted me. Another thing that made me love this project was because I got to do some hands on building. I was able to build with things I found at home. It taught me a lot about the revolutions and how it has impacted the world. Without the American revolution everything might have been different. I loved the book leviathan and the whole steampunk aspect really made me enjoy the topic more. The book leviathan was the main reason I got better at my novel role sheets. I also never got tired of working on this project. I was always ready for the next class so I would be able to get deeper knowledge about the topic. I’m glad I did this project and I’m excited for the next time I get to work on a project like this and hopefully I don’t have to leave near the end of the project to go to the other side of the world.