Amber, Sharita, and LeEllen's marble machine is called "Three Points". The three girls built a marble machine by adding a collection of pulleys, plastic 2-liter pop bottles, fabric netting, film canisters, string, and Styrofoam cups to the usual materials. They designed and built a marble machine that would send a marble:

"Down the ramp, then through the cup into the foam tube, the marble twirls around in the pop bottle and lands in the film can. You use the pulley to raise the ball, then turn the tube and the ball falls on the track below, then it zig-zags down the track and into the net for a score." (1)

The theme of their marble machine, entitled Three Points, was inspired by the fun they have playing basketball. Other students were inspired by bicycle riding and skateboarding and created marble machines with this theme. Another creative student in the class made a marble machine mousetrap.

Marble machines make unusual connections to Karen T.'s classroom as well. Their design and construction were influenced by a carefully selected collection of software, games, books, and other materials that support scientific investigation and creative inspiration. At any moment during the past three months, students could be found searching for ideas in books, such as Raceways(2), Mistakes That Worked(3), or The Art of Construction(4).

One corner of the room was busy with activity as students worked with Spacewarp, a miniature roller coaster construction game. The space under a table in the center of the room was reserved for the Mousetrap game. One computer in the classroom was running The Incredible Machine, a piece of software inspired by Rube Goldberg's machine cartoons, while another computer was used to control LEGO Technics building blocks.

For the three months that the students had been working on their marble machines, the classroom became a studio for invention, creative thinking, and self expression. What I have found in other circumstances is that the activity of constructing marble machines is just as inspiring.