Pinball Machine Maker: Gumball Rally

Explore lessons in physics and mechanical engineering with the sweetest pinball machine ever! Build your own customizable pinball machine that uses edible gumballs as the pinballs. Learn about force, motion, collisions, gravity, simple machines, and more as the gumballs bounce off bumpers, slingshot around spinners, ring bells, slide down tracks, and whiz around the obstacle course you create. The targets and accessories can be quickly repositioned into countless configurations, making it easy to test and refine your designs. The pinball machine’s spring-powered launcher and responsive flippers work like their real-life counterparts, propelling the gumball pinballs up, down, and all around! A central ramp rotates to direct the projectiles into three elevated playing areas and ultimately down the winning ramp, where the gumball can be claimed as a sweet prize. Did you miss your mark? Don’t worry! When gumballs fall out of play, a cool mechanism called an Archimedes screw stores them and moves them back toward the launcher again for a new game.