fandomhigh | Shop Class; Tuesday, First Period [12/07].

"Morning, everyone," Amaya greeted the students with a nod as usual, santa hat firmly in place, because she knew already from repeated attempts that the blasted thing wasn't going anywhere.

"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 will be your final project, and today, as well as last week's class, are build-ups to that. It's the concept of simple machines like those we covered last week that are what's going to help you out 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 such devices for examples" because of course she would, "figuring they might 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.

"And, hopefully," she added, giving the tail of her santa hat a slightly irritated flick over her shoulder, "these won't get in the way too much."

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In a complicated fashion.

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.

Extra credit if anyone gets any ideas for a machine to remove these blasted hats once and for all!

Amaya has clearly been busy, recreating some of her old favorites from previous Rube Goldberg finals, and having explored a few new ones, too.

Like who could forget the self-operating napkin rigged up on a practice dummy? Or a device for never forgetting to mail a letter again?

Get a little help turning the pages of your newspaper while your breakfast is prepared?

And the holidays are almost here, you'll need a good way to light the tree, right? That one definitely took some doing, but it was worth it! And should definitely get the idea across of what these machines were going for.

(Or pretty much just anything from this guy, really).