Simple Machines Project Idea

After reconsidering a change for the current simple machines project in place for Principles of Engineering, I stumbled across a website Automata by Stuart Chalmers. After viewing the site, I felt that the mechanisms shown could potentially be worked into a pre-engineering curriculum in the simple machines/gears and pulleys unit. Instead of spending time creating an SMET (Simple Machines Energy Transfer device (a.k.a. Rube Goldberg), the students could design a mechanism using the six simple machines to create a moving mechanism designed for a specific task.