Date: Fri 20-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

Rube-Goldberg-contest

Full Text:

The Annual Rube Goldberg Contest: When Simple Solutions Just Won't Do

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Contraptions galore, to do what?

Well, nothing of any consequence, unless you happen to be a hungry chicken.

Eighth grade students in the Discovery Program for gifted learners at Newtown

Middle School invited friends and colleagues to partake in a friendly

competition to make something a little bit silly and a little bit scientific,

and more than a little bit creative.

Modeled after the famous cartoonist's line drawings, Rube Goldberg machines

have been made to scratch an itch, pour a jug of cream, or any other little

thing, through an unbelievably complicated series of events.

This year, students had to have at least fifteen steps, on a theme of their

choice, to turn off an alarm clock.

One of the organizers, teacher Cheryl Caloras, said she was amazed by

inspirational creativity and teamwork shown by this year's competitors.

The contraptions were as varied and vivid as one can imagine.

One, set in Frankenstein's Laboratory, set off sparks and smoke. It turned on

a light bulb after innumerable steps, but needed a little human help to get

the alarm clock turned off.

Another had a circus theme with acrobats swinging and flying through the air

in a succession of pre-determined steps.

Liz Kotecki and Melanie Murphy of "Artfully Clucky" fed one of Melanie's

chickens as part of the process of turning off the alarm with their machine.

After the judging, Liz knew winning would be a long shot. She said that

although their machine had 22 steps, starting with the popping of the game

"Perfection" and including feeding a live chicken, "I had to interfere a lot

to keep it going."

Although the theme and creativity was an important part of the judging,

students were penalized for having to help their machine complete the task.

Duracell employees judged the contest, and gave $100 to first-place winners

Kristin Mulrane and Shiela O'Connor for their contraption entitled "Jack's

Adventure Up the Beanstalk."

It all started when Kristen tapped a golf ball. The golf ball rolled into a

cup on a pulley which released a stuffed cow, which knocked over a cup of

jelly beans, which sprung a mousetrap.

This turned on a fan which blew a pinwheel round and round, winding string up

the pinwheel stem, which made the beanstalk grow until it knocked a lever

which pushed Jack in his cart down a track and made the giant fall down the

tube and land on a clothes pin which released a string, which made an axe land

on another lever forcing a wooden hand to turn off the alarm clock!

Kristen said, "It works every time!"

She said, "I was surprised that we won, because there were a lot of great ones

there!"

Second place, worth $75, went to Brendan Berg, Brenden Krueger, Mike English

and Drew Carleton for their "Phobia Works." A car was sent down the ramp,

knocking over a series of dominoes, hitting another car, which careened down a

ramp, smashed into more dominoes, which sent a ball bearing into a boat in a

wooden canal.

The boat eventually sailed to the end of the canal and hit a train. But the

train barely moved.

Collectively everyone held their breath. Would the train just stop?

Slowly, it gained momentum as it went down the slight slope on the track,

until finally, it smashed the end of the track and turned off the alarm clock!

Moments prior to the successful run, the ball bearing started rolling.

Frantically yelling, "Stop it, stop it!" a team member lunged for the marble

and prevented it from setting off a chain reaction prematurely.

Apparently the mouse trap had spontaneously sprung. A man watching said, "I

think they need to make a better mousetrap. Next year's project!"

Third place, worth $25, went to Matt Pachniuk, Ryan Walker and Colin Armstrong

for their "Duke's Dynamic Device," which uses a variety of balls of different

weights and turned off the alarm like clockwork.

Along with these spectacular successes, there were a few machines that simply

would not cooperate for the judges.

David Rod, one of three creators of "Breakfast of Champions," said "things

were falling apart." As he was dismantling his creation he said, "At least we

had a spectacular finish. Snap! Crash! We went out with a bang!"

Kristen, on the first-place team, spent many hours tinkering with "Jack's

Adventure Up the Beanstalk."

She said, "It was really fun, and a great experience. It was definitely

worthwhile!"