Rube Goldberg Inspired Drawings

If I don’t understand something my student is representing in his/her illustration, how can I ask them what it means without making them feel bad about themselves or their drawing skills?

I could use Rube Goldberg’s ideas in my future classroom as a way to understand how my students see and understand concepts being taught to them. For example after teaching a unit on plant and animal cells, I could have my students pick one of the two cells and illustrate how the cell works, and how each part of the cell has an essential role. These illustrations could be used as a form of differentiated assessment, because it would show me what the students have understood about plant and animal cells, and how they function. Rube Goldberg’s website describes his work as, “…his ingenious drawings follow their own impeccable logic, demonstrating that the unnecessary can also be the mother of invention”. I think this is a very important quote because just like Goldberg, students in every classroom have their own impeccable logic about concepts, and if we do not give them a chance to demonstrate what they know, we will never know what they are capable of understanding. I really liked Thomas Oakley’s approach of using Rube Goldberg inspired drawings to get his students thinking about how art is made, from their own point of view, including every detailed that was important to them. I could definitely see myself using Rube Goldberg inspired drawings in my own classroom to see how my students develop their thinking.