KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Third grade students at the Episcopal School of Knoxville built on lessons they've learned in the Innovation Lab.
"The kids are learning about the six simple machines: the wedge, the lever, the inclined plane, the screw, the pulley, and the wheel and axle," ESK teacher Megan Jenkins said.
Their assignment? Incorporate at least three of those machines into a delivery system for Valentines.
They designed Rube Goldberg style machines out of recycled and donated parts.
"We were in the Lab and I just found these so I was trying to figure out a way to put them together and that was the way it worked," student Megan Mewett said.
At a demonstration Thursday, marbles and gumballs and anything round rolled down tubes and bounced off wedges to present valentine candy and prizes.
The students' creations feature those six simple machines: the wedge, the lever, the inclined plane, the screw, the pulley, and the wheel and axle.
It's a Valentine delivery system presentation so at the end of the journey there's a candy payoff.
As one girl explained, "The marble is going to go down the incline plane, hit the wedge, and make the Starburst launch."
And when it launches, someone can eat it.
The school started the Valentine delivery system project about 15 years ago.
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