Updated May 4, 2007 URL is
www.tentativetimes.net/rube/index.html
I wandered into that new Milwaukee Santiago Calatrava-designed
art museum on Lake Michigan with my grandkids in late April, 2007,
to find the following amazing groups of teens solving this
problem:
In at least 20 steps, with no hands-on at all,
squeeze oranges, divert the juice to a pitcher, pour the juice
into a cup and repeat, all within 9 minutes. (Yes, they could use
their hands to reset the contraptions after the first run.)
I took what photos I could. The crowds were packed like
sardines.
Whomever I have omitted, you are champions too. To the schools who could not raise enough money to send their teams, our hearts are with you. You deserve travel money from somewhere. (Most teams have to rent a truck to bring their exhibits.)
Here is the Rube Goldberg team coach from Burlington, WI. I
couldn't get any pictures of his award winning display, because of
the crowds, but it had the greatest team spirit I saw, IMHO.
It had a baseball park theme, and up above, on this page, is Mr.
Italian Sausage guy from Miller Park where there are 4 weiner-type
people running amok during the baseball games. (This Mr.
Sausage-guy may have been a ringer, but who could tell? This
school sang the loudest and laughed the most, and would be my
choice for a high school if I were not a grandma.
More Burlington team workers:
******************************** Now for more schools and
exhibits:
Spring
Valley
Brillon High School, saving us from scurvy!
Reedsburg High School put G.I. Joe to work!
Metropolitan Milwaukee High School
New Auburn did a tribute to Rube Goldberg this year with their
functional juicer. Note the boot, a standard in Rube
Goldberg's cartoons:
What
better place to recruit budding engineers than this contest?
Loyal High School had a rip-snortin' George of the Jungle stage
with a live band, shown here on the brink of total exhaustion.
George and company were real crowd pleasers. Wonder if they
won?
George himself, after my failed red-eye removal editing effort.
Sorry about that.
Yes, this one is blurred, but I wanted to include it for the
camaraderie. It was a lot of work, to say the least, and at
the end, some teams were left standing, and some were, um, as you
can see next:
The 2006 contest rules:
Here is the winner of the 2006 Rube Goldberg contest for the
entire nation's high schools, New Auburn High School. (Wisconsin,
I presume.)
And here's a fine kettle of fish from the official Rube Goldberg
web site:
" Due to the overwhelming interest on the local and regional
levels, the National High School competition has been cancelled
this year in order to focus attention on these competitions.
We will resume the National High School competition in the
2007/2008 school year."
HOMEWORK
Now that you have learned this much, please go to
Google or www.ask.com
and find out more about Rube Goldberg, the 1948 Pulitzer
Prize winning cartoonist, who was a friend of an uncle in our
family.
http://www.rube-goldberg.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/goldbe70.htm
http://www.jacobshwirtz.com/RubeGoldberg/index.html with more links to Rube Goldberg sites
The official site explains the contest:
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC) brings the ideas of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Rube Goldberg's "invention" cartoons to life. This Olympics of Complexity is designed to pull students away from conventional problem-solving and push them into the endless chaos of imagination and intuitive thought. To be specific, groups are given an elementary challenge: something as simple as peeling an apple, sharpening a pencil, or putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. But instead of just "solving" the problem, students have to make the solution as complicated and as convoluted as possible. In fact, the more steps - there's a minimum of twenty - the better the Rube Goldberg Machine. And what a machine! An assemblage of ordinary objects, mechanical gadgets, and the oddest odds and ends are linked together and somehow get to the desired goal.
Find out about Santiago Calatrava, the
architect of this stunning Milwaukee Art Museum.
http://www.mam.org/thebuilding/index.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/calatrava/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Calatrava
(Calatrava's own site requires Flash and I don't
have Flash. The address is
www.calatrava.com/
)
Then find out why sports get all the high schools' money and
the future engineers get so little, in the cosmic scheme of
things.
This site is made by Sandra Weinhardt, email
secop@parlorcity.com
I welcome all notices of typos and of outdated information and
oh-so-gentle advice.
I stumbled upon this contest and decided to share the pictures I took, in hopes that you will support the teens in your town who want to try this Rube Goldberg Machine Contest idea. Please! There may be another Calatrava out there, or another Rube Goldberg.
And, ahem, my granddaughters and I hope to see more female entrants.