Date: Fri 26-Mar-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Rube-Goldberg-invention

Full Text:

The Simple, Made Elaborately Complicated

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Eighth grade Discovery students unveiled incredibly complex creations in the

cafeteria of Newtown Middle School during the evening of March 23. The

creations -- elaborate machines that performed the basic task of putting a

golf ball onto a tee -- were this year's entries for the annual Rube Goldberg

Contest.

Goldberg was an American artist (1883-1970, born in San Francisco) who became

a professional sculptor and political cartoonist. He was quite famous in his

time for his line drawings of "wildly intricate machines that perform simple

tasks" ( The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia , third edition, 1994).

On Tuesday evening, the cafeteria became a loud, exciting place for the

Discovery students and their friends and families. Ten teams participated in

this year's event, the Eighth Annual Rube Goldberg Contest. Teams were vying

for first place, with cash prizes totaling $200 donated from Duracell

Corporation of Bethel, but also showing off their creativity -- and in some

cases, tenacity. Duracell has provided the prizes for the contest for a number

of years, Discovery teacher John Vouros said Tuesday night.

The theme of the contest this year was "Rube's Teed Off," and each team named

their machines accordingly. The winning team -- Eric Johnson, Austin McChord,

Branden Roumanis and Lauren Staple -- devised something they called "North

Pole Play and Putt." This table-top contraption was linked with Matchbox

loops, mousetraps galore, Legosî, wiring, and toys that could be found on the

North Pole.

After a bit of trouble at the beginning of the evening, the team was able to

make its machine run smoothly. The group had a circuit that was not connecting

at the beginning of the evening, but some brainstorming as a team solved the

problem.

Brandon Russell was one of three students who decided to work on their own.

Brandon, who won second place, had come up with "Ninja Golf" as his creation.

His machine worked with a number of pulleys, levers, timers and dominoes, and

it ran flawlessly through each execution.

The team of Tim Cardoso, Chris Giacolone and Zack Zimmer took third place. The

boys had a machine called "Golf Digest," that was sub-titled "How To Put A

Golf Ball On A Tee Using The Diet Of A 13-Year-Old." Using pulleys and levers,

the team's golf ball traveled through empty French fry holders from McDonald's

restaurants, tins from Reese's candies, Pringles potato crisps and M&M's

candies, a fortune cookie box, a Taco Bell dinner mix and even a Tinker Toys

canister.

Of course, not every team was going to go home Tuesday night with a prize.

Team Two, a five-girl team that came up with a multi-level machine they named

"Goofy Golf," was another of the judges' favorites. The girls had elements of

favorite Disney stories ( Aladdin , Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs ) and rides

from Walt Disney World, including Thunder Mountain and Tower of Terror. Judge

Tara Fiscella called the machine "very creative and complex ... it's awesome."

Team One consisted of three boys who came up with "Peterville Pirates

Putt-Putt Golf," a standing two-sided contraption. Team Ten, the creators of

"Children of the Night," used a ghoulish theme for their machine and the

reaction of baking soda with vinegar in their attempt to move their golf ball

onto its tee.

Judges scored the entries on creativity, complexity, and loyalty to the spirit

of outrageous complexity embodied in the work of Rube Goldberg. Points were

taken away when a contraption did not complete its task, if "human

intervention" was needed for the task to be accomplished, or if a team did not

make the five-minute reset time limit. During the judging phase of the

evening, the teams were expected to not only have their machines run through

their courses once, but to be able to reset their machines within five minutes

and run the course again.

The judges this year were Duane Langenwalter, toy inventor; Newtown High

School seniors Tara Fiscella and Helene Powers; and Newtown Bee arts editor

Shannon Hicks.