Tuesday: UW-Stout gets ruby
My mom always said "why make things harder?" Uhh, duh, for the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest: a contest dedicated to making a simple task complex. Each year The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, happening Tuesday March 1, challenges high school students to dig deep into their brains for creativity and imagination to turn a simple task, like turning on a light switch, into a mission that is so complex you have to take notes while it happens or risk forgetting what just happened (this is a complex sentence).
This year students must invent a machine that can water a plant while jumping on one foot, spinning in circles and playing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 . I'm kidding about the last part, but you get the point, the machine needs to have twenty steps before providing a parched plant with a refreshing drink. UW-Stout will be holding the competition in the Micheels Hall starting at 10:30am, with an awards ceremony in Jarvis Hall at 1:30pm.
These machines will cost the participating teams' time, creativity, imagination, and most of all, effort. This year teams include Augusta, Bayfield, Chippewa Falls (whoo!), Kimberly, Loyal, New Auburn, Plum City, Spooner, and the two-time reigning champions Thorp. The machine that can water a plant in the most creatively chaotic fashion while still functioning will advance to the national competition Saturday, March 19 which will be held at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
So let me see you high schoolers put those thinking caps on (in at least twenty steps).
As if this isn't exciting enough, 2010 national title winners in the collegiate division – UW-Stout – is ready to take home yet another Rube Goldenberg title this year. Today (February 25) in fact, the Stout team, led by Andrew Behnke and Ian Billings, is in South Dakota competing to advance in the national competition. Follow the UW-Stout team at the regionals on Twitter. Good Luck Stout!
Click here to see last year's winning Rube Goldberg Machine.
