Students to test wacky voting machines at state Rube Goldberg championship

ARGONNE, Ill. (April 1, 2004) — The Illinois primary election may be over, but students from six Illinois high schools will go to the polls one more time in the sixth annual Illinois State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, Saturday, April 17.

Student teams have built machines that take at least 20 steps to select, mark and cast an election ballot. The teams will face off for state bragging rights at the contest which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and held at the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. The contest will begin at 11:30 a.m. with the judges reviewing machines. The first machine will run about noon.

Competing schools are:

• Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School, Gibson City
• Glenbrook South High School, Glenview
• Hardin County High School, Elizabethtown
• Maine West High School, Des Plaines
• Morgan Park Academy, Chicago
• Wilmington High School, Wilmington

The winning team will receive the Argonne Science Award, and $600 will be donated to the school's science program. The second-place team will receive a presentation certificate and a $400 donation to the school's science program. The third-place team will receive a presentation certificate and a $300 donation to the school's science program. Fourth- through sixth-place teams will receive a $200 donation to their schools' science programs.

The top two teams in the Illinois State Championship will have the opportunity to compete in the new National Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools Friday, April 30, at the Wisconsin Exhibition Center , State Fair Park , Wisc. The winning national championship team will receive $1,000, and each student team member will receive a $2,000 college scholarship. The second-place national team will receive $500, and each student team member will receive a $1,000 scholarship. For more information see the national contest Website at www.uwm.edu/CEAS//rube/ .

Rube Goldberg machine contests are inspired by Reuben Lucius Goldberg, whose cartoons combined simple household items into complex devices to perform trivial tasks. The machines combine the principles of physics and engineering, using common objects such as marbles, mousetraps, stuffed animals, electric mixers, vacuum cleaners, rubber tubes, bicycle parts and anything else that happens to be on hand.

Information about the Illinois State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools is available on the World Wide Web at www.anl.gov/OPA/rube/rubechteams.htm.

Argonne sponsors the championship event in collaboration with the University of Illinois-Urbana, the Chicago Children's Museum, and the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, held annually at Purdue University . The event is licensed by Rube Goldberg, Inc.

"Rube Goldberg" is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg, Inc., which can be reached by fax at (212) 371-3761, by e-mail at license@rubegoldberg.com or information@rubegoldberg.com, or on the World Wide Web at www.rgmc.com.

Chicago Children's Museum's mission is to create a community where play and learning connect. For more information about Chicago Children's Museum, call (312) 527-1000 or visit www.chichildrensmuseum.org .

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Donna Jones Pelkie (630/252-5501 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.