Ridgefield High School freshmen (from left) Emma Bruce, Julia Driscoll and Julia Restivo created a prize-winning Rube Goldberg machine, visible in the background.
Erase a chalkboard was the challenge. And two teams of Ridgefield students met it — not head-on, but in a roundabout, falling-domino, marble-down-the-ramp, tip-the-bucket, spill-the-water sort of way.
An entire school board meeting broke out in laughter — arguably an admission-to-Princeton-worthy accomplishment right there — when Assistant Superintendent of Schools Kimberly Beck showed a video of one team’s Rube Goldberg machine at work.
“The students,” Ms. Beck said, “took the challenge of creating a machine that was most elaborate and hilarious.”
The students were successful competitors in the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC), an annual international competition that challenges students from middle school to college age to compete in building contraptions worthy of the title Rube Goldberg Machine.
Named after 20th-Century cartoonist Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg, a Rube Goldberg machine is a device in the humorous tradition of his many cartoons depicting overly complex contraptions to perform simple tasks.
Ridgefield High School students Emma Bruce, Julia Driscoll, and Julia Restivo took second place in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, Division II, for kids 14 to 18, at the Lower Hudson Valley Engineering Expo on March 22.
They were the only freshman and all-girl team competing in the event.
And three East Ridge Middle School students, Andrew Conte, Ruben Mendoza and Otis Robbe, made it to the Top 10 in the 2015 International Online Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, Division I, for kids aged 11 to 14.
The video by their team, Akinfenwa’s Children — the video that cracked up the March 23 school board meeting — can be viewed on here.
Ms. Beck said people who view the video can click on their team page and support the team by “liking” them on Facebook.
She said people can vote for Akinfenwa’s Children online at rubegoldberg.com by viewing their video and clicking the ‘Like’ button on their team page.
“We’ll be doing an online voting campaign,” Ms. Beck told the school board.
The voting ends April 19.
23 steps
The Akinfenwa’s Children team listed the 23 steps in its Rube Goldberg approach to chalkboard erasure:
1. Pour the beans down the spout into the cup.
2. As the beans fill up the cup, the balance tips over, to one side.
3. When the balance tips over, the marbles are tipped into the spout and go down the marble track.
4. The marble then jumps onto the tape measure, rolling down it.
5. The marble hits the domino at the bottom of the tape measure.
6. The domino becomes loose, releasing the toy car.
7. The car rolls and hits the dominoes at the end.
8. The dominoes tumble and hit the marble at the edge of the tube.
9. The marble rolls down the tube.
10. The marble hits the dominoes at the end of the tube and they tumble and hit the duct tape.
11. The duct tape rolls and hits the books down, hitting the ruler.
12. The ruler lifts the soccer ball out of its position.
13. The soccer ball goes to hit the dominoes on the floor.
14. The dominoes tumble and hit a last domino, then releasing the Lego brick.
15. The Lego brick then releases the car.
16. The car rolls toward the domino and pushes it.
17. The domino then turns on the power cable.
18. The power cable then turns on the hair dryer.
19. The hair dryer blows on the wood off the table.
20. The wood piece pulls out the wood piece in the tube.
21. The wood piece pulled out releases a pool ball.
22. The pool ball rolls down the tube, hitting the eraser.
23. The eraser goes off the table and goes down the whiteboard, erasing what is written.
Would Rube be proud or what?
Class fun
The students’ inventive machines grew from a Rube Goldberg Innovation Expo for eighth grade students, co-sponsored by the Ridgefield school system and the Ridgefield Education Foundation.
This is the second year the schools and foundation put on a Rube Goldberg Innovation Expo for eighth graders.
The winners of the town event were then sponsored by the Ridgefield Public Schools to continue in the national competitions.
Some 22 Rube Goldberg contests were planned at high schools around the nation from February to April this year, and five at colleges.
The Ridgefield students’ Rube Goldberg experience began in eighth grade science classes, with presentations designed to ignite student curiosity and inspire participation.
Science teachers Tiffany Ankies, David Bozzuto, Shaylene Fink, Deborah Sullivan, Rick Taylor, Beth Terhaar, and Charlsie Vanderrest led the students through the Rube Goldberg experiences.
Both this year and last year, more than 75 students chose to take the challenge and participate in the Expo.
The Akinfenwa’s Children team page on the Rubegoldberg.com site offers its East Ridge Middle School teacher David Bozzutto’s favorite quote, which comes from Isaac Asimov:
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it) but ‘That’s funny …’”