…BLOG POST ABOUT METAPHORS! (more or less)

We have recently learned about metaphors, Rube Goldberg machines, and how to start a revolution. At some point during this time, our teachers got together had had a conversation. I believe it went a little something like this:

Teacher 1: Our students are so capable and awesome.

Teacher 2: Yeah, they’re learning at such a fast pace.

Teacher 3: Hey! Why don’t we have them make a Rube Goldberg machine…. thats a metaphor….. for a past revolution!

Teacher 1: My gosh, that sounds just crazy enough to work!

I don’t want this to get around but….the funny thing is, the project is working. And its fun!

(P.S. Full disclosure: we are only half way through the project)

Our fist step in creating this crazy contraption was to create a timeline for our assigned revolution. To do this we researched the different events of the revolution and then put them in a timeline on a big piece of paper. The revolution my group was assigned was the Russian Revolution in which Czar Nicholas II was thrown out of power. This, in turn, lead to the creation of the USSR (Spoiler Alert: the USSR no longer exists).

The next step was to create metaphors for the different stages of our contraption. For example: troops where sent to stop the revolution but ended up joining it = metaphor: dominos hitting a brick that topples over more dominos. Another one was Czar Nicholas overruling his opposition = metaphor: a ball tilting a scale.

The third step was to build the contraption. We drew-up a blueprint, and then we collected our materials and painted several of them. It was really hard to find some of the pieces, especially the wood because it can be really expensive. Here a few clips of us building and painting our contraption

This is as far was my group has gotten in this project. Even though we are not quite done yet,  I feel like I’ve learned so much. For example: I did not know about the Russian Revolution until this project and learned that it only lasted a few months (I thought revolutions always went on for a long time) and I developed the skill to age the look of something using only some black spray paint. I’ll add a follow-up post when I’m done this project to show you the finished project.