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Scooped by
John Evans
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Steel marbles, levers, gears, a maze of tracks and tubes, and so much more: This mesmerizing video captures a demonstration of the Marble Conveyer Belt, a new marble music machine from the engineering and innovation-focused Swedish folktronica band Wintergatan. Band member and inventor Martin Molin is at the crank. Via Wikipedia:
Ten months after the debut of the original Marble Machine, the band disassembled it and announced their plans to make a new marble machine for the purpose of touring. The new machine, to be called “Marble Machine X“, would solve a multitude of mechanical functionality problems with the original marble machine.
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Marble Machines is one of the core tinkering experiences that we offer in the Tinkering Studio. It initially started in a formal school setting, but has been used in museums, libraries, and in home and afterschool settings. One of the amazing things about this activity is that it is incredibly versatile, it just “works.” We have found it to be a perfect introductory activity to tinkering as a practice for learners, and a great training ground for facilitators to develop their chops and personal style, precisely because the design of the activity is so strong.
However, it does require a fair investment to collect the materials and build the boards, tracks, bumpers, etc., as well as collecting decorative materials, funnels, bells, and other things that enrich the activity. On the plus side, if you are planning to do this activity more than once, you can use these things forever. We’ve been using our current set for 15 years!
On the other hand, if you’re not planning to facilitate this experience in a repeated way, the investment of time and money may be too large. In that case we suggest you take tinkering to heart and get scrappy about finding alternative materials.
Hoping to provide some ideas for creative Marble Machines, we have made a Pinterest page of some of our favorite ideas we’ve seen over the years. Here are some particularly low-barrier highlights:
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