“A” grade:

• The steps are imaginative, unique, and exciting.
• The machine uses more than 4 of the 6 simple machines.
• The machine has more than 10 steps.
• The machine works a majority of the time.
• Your paper correctly describes each step and is essentially free of typos, punctuation mistakes and other errors.
• Your diagrams of the simple machines are well drawn and mathematically and technically correct.
• Your machine is flexible enough to be combined with several other machines during the multi-group demonstration of the machine.
  

“B” grade:

• The steps are imaginative and unique, but the machine's overall design is not very creative.
• The machine uses 4 of the 6 simple machines.
• The machine has 10 steps.
• The machine works at least once, and most of the steps worked reliably.
• Your paper correctly describes each step and is largely free of typos, punctuation mistakes and other errors.
• Your diagrams of the simple machines are well drawn and technically correct, but contain some mathematical errors.
• Your machine integrates well with the other machines it is connected to at the multi-group demonstration of the machine.
  

“C” grade:

• The steps are unimaginative or redundant.
• The machine uses only 3 of the 6 simple machines.
• The machine has only 8 or 9 proper steps.
• The entire machine never quite works, but many steps work well consistently.
• You got most of your ideas from a book, a magazine, or the Internet.
• Your paper correctly describes each step, but is not well written.
• Your diagrams of the simple machines are approximately correct but are not drawn to scale.
• Your machine can only be deployed at the beginning or end of a chain on the evening of the multi-group demonstration of the machine.
  

“D” grade:

• The machine uses fewer than 3 of the 6 simple machines.
• The machine has fewer than 8 steps.
• The machine never works, and only the most simple steps work with any regularity.
• Your paper does not correctly describes each step.
• Your diagrams of the simple machines do not correctly identify the important forces and distances.
• Your machine can not be combined with any other group's machine at the multi-group demonstration of the machine.
  

“F” grade:

• You do not have a machine.
• You do not have a paper.
• You do not have index cards with diagrams of the simple machines you used.
• You used one or more parts from the Mousetrap Game.
• You do not bring your machine to the multi-group demonstration of the machine.