Rube Goldberg Machine Contest challenges
students to build wackiest, most complicated orange juicer
(Download printable, PDF version.)
ARGONNE, Ill. (March 16, 2007) — Students who participate in Argonne
National Laboratory's 12th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Friday,
March 30, will need creativity, concentration and perhaps some vitamin C as
they demonstrate the complicated machines they built to juice an orange and
pour the juice from a pitcher into a cup in 10 or more steps.
The machines will be put to the test in the contest, which kicks off at 10:30
a.m. at Chicago
Children's Museum at Navy Pier.
Up to 12 teams can compete. Schools registered for this year's contest are:
- Downers Grove North. H.S., Downers Grove
- William Fremd H.S., Palatine
- Gardner South Wilmington H.S., Wilmington
- Glenbrook South H.S., Glenview
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- Maine Township South, Park Ridge (two teams)
- Minooka Comm. H.S., Minooka (two teams)
- Alan B. Shepard H.S., Palos Heights
- Wilmington H.S., Wilmington
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The winning team will receive a traveling trophy to display until the
2008 contest and a tour of Argonne, which will include the Advanced Photon
Source, and lunch with Argonne scientists. The first-place team also will have
the opportunity to demonstrate its winning machine at Argonne on the day of
their tour. In addition, each team member and the team's faculty advisor will
receive an Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine laptop backpack
and an Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirt.
Second-place team members and their faculty advisor will receive Argonne
National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine laptop backpacks and Argonne Rube
Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.
Third-place team members and their faculty advisor will receive Argonne
National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.
A trophy will be awarded to the team that wins the People's Choice Award,
to be chosen by popular vote by people attending the Chicago Children's Museum
during the contest.
The top three teams will have the opportunity to compete in the 2007 Illinois
State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest to be held Saturday, April
21, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They will compete against
the top three teams from the Friday, March 9, high school Rube Goldberg Machine
Contest at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign's Engineering Open
House.
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.
But the ultimate goal of the Argonne-sponsored contest is give students hands-on
engineering experience and to encourage them to make science and engineering
part of their future academic and professional careers.
“Designing and building a Rube Goldberg machine has a lot in common with modern
research and development,” says David Baurac, one of the founders of the Argonne
competition. “Specifically, it's creative problem solving, and it's a team
activity. The teachers I talk to tell me that the contest is not about winning,
it's about the experience of participating.”
Information about the Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools
is available online the at www.anl.gov/Careers/Education/rube/rubeteams.html.
Argonne's Division of Educational Programs and Communications and Public Affairs
Division sponsor the March event in collaboration with 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 and copyright of Rube
Goldberg, Inc., which can be reached, at (203) 227-0818, by e-mail at Rube@Rube
Goldberg.com or via their Web site at www.RubeGoldberg.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.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic
and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities,
and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific
problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed
by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for
the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
For more information, please
contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov)
at Argonne.
By Donna Jones Pelkie |