fandomhigh | Shop Class; Thursday, Second Period [04/15].

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the students with a nod as usual and a faint grin, glad to not only be stepping into this project for their last classes but also that this week had been nice and quiet after the week they'd all just had, and that there would be hopefully no reason to get into any of that by now, anyway, and onto some new distractions.

And it would seem that Amaya had been putting in quite a bit of work into some distractions indeed, as thee were a few intriguing contraptions and machines in the shop that were definitely not the usual pieces of equipment they were used to running.

"Not so much hard work with our hands today, though, but rather with our heads. We're coming up on the end of the semester, so next week, you'll be coming in and finishing up on a final project to show off to the class. Now, we didn't really take a whole lot of time to go over simple machines this semester, since I've felt you've all got a pretty good grip on those when you came in, but the concepts of simple machines are what's going into what I expect out of you next week. I'm looking to have you all put together a contraption of simple machines. The rules are pretty simple: I want you to take some time and think about a simple task. Could be switching on a light. Tying your boots. Toasting your bread. Something really mundane and basic...and then I want you to try to think up a machine with at least five moving parts to perform that task.

"There's actually a term for this sort of thing on this world," which still amused Amaya to absolutely no end. "They call it a Rube Goldberg machine, a device intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an overly complicated and complex manner. Named after a cartoonist who was known to feature these kinds of machines in his work.

"Now, I've gone ahead and tried to recreate some of his devices from my research," because of course she would, "as well as a few others to help inspire you guys. Take some time to look them over, see what they do, and maybe bounce some ideas around for simple tasks that could use a complex solution. It's mostly brainstorming today, maybe get a little work in if you have an idea and want to see how it works. You'll have the class period today and the start of class next week to work on your machines, or, if you need a little extra time, just let me know and we can have you come in extra if you need. So! With that said, let's have a look at what these here machines can do to start getting the machines inside your skulls," she tapped a finger against the side of her head, "working! Then you've got full run of the shop once you feel you're ready to get cranking them out."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In a complicated fashion.

Troy Barnes

There isn't much of one; it's more of a tidbit than a lecture. All the good stuff is going to happen once Amaya's finished talking about it, which is usually how things went with her class.

The shop is filled with various devices of questionable nature, but Amaya encourages everyone to check out at least a few of them to get a few idea for how over-the-top and outlandish some of these could be.

Take, for example, the Self-Operating Napkin she's got hooked up to one of the practice dummies.

Or maybe you'd be interested in a pet, for the sole purpose of preventing you from hurting yourself slipping on icy surfaces. (With a special guest appearance from Anna Pavlova, because Diaz was more than willing to offer up her dog to science as long as it was with someone who knew what bloody demise they would meet if anything happened to the dog, but everyoene might want to watch their shoes).

Always forgetting to mail your letters? Fear no more!

Maybe you need some help turning the pages of your morning newspaper while you make some breakfast? Oh! And if you were wondering about the absolutely sprawling one that seemed to take up the whole exterior of the workshop? Well, that was all just to light up that Christmas tree!

....yeah.

She had way too much fun setting up for this class.

Now's the time to maybe bounce some ideas off each other or the teacher to start thinking of your own Rube Goldberg machine. What's a simple task that could use some complexity in performing? What are some examples you might already know of yourself that might help someone else along? Which parts of the machines did you particularly like or what parts were just a little too much?

She's here, if you need her, not at all thinking of a few more examples she could have put together or will probably put together by the end of the week, if only for the pure sake of doing it, nope, not even a little...

You know, there seemed to be a lot of opportunities of this ilk bieng missed with regards to the maintenance of her greenhouse, now that she thought about it...

Me, if I tried any of this:

Shop Class; Thursday, Second Period [04/15].

Sign In - Shop Class, 04/15.

Re: Sign In - Shop Class, 04/15.

Listen to the Lecture - Shop Class, 04/15.

Class Activity: Machines - Shop Class, 04/15.

Class Activity: Brainstorming - Shop Class, 04/15.

Talk to Amaya - Shop Class, 04/15.

OOC - Shop Class, 04/15.