Newbie Challenge

Looking for a way to get started on your mechanical masterpiece? Need some inspiration at the drawing board? Try this:

Make a machine that puts one thing inside another thing.

Don’t overthink this. Really, just take anything (a ball, napkin, action figure, etc.) and put it into something else (could be a box, a cup, a wastebasket, an envelope–or perhaps something even more clever than that!) Use a simple mechanical contraption to do so.

You must use all of the following items as part of your contraption:

• A rubber band
• A paper clip
• String or twine
• A pencil or dowel rod

Anything else is up to your own particular genius . . . .

Once you assemble the materials, you’ll start to get ideas, so you should just go with them. After you decide what it is you want to put into whatever other thing you pick, the machine will practically build itself, I promise!

Bring whatever you come up with to the party and show it off.

Don’t you want to see what other people come up with? I sure do . . . . But that means you need to accept the challenge, yourself!
Why not give it a go?