One of three winning teams, The Twinkling Teslas of East Ridge Middle School, from left: Maximus Schoepfer, Leo Rector, Questin McQuilkin, and Sam Sulzinsky.
“Holyhead Harpies, All-Witch Quiddich Team” seemed proud of their entry into the Rube Goldberg Innovation Expo. From left are Aurora Mu, Julia Kocsis, Lauren Tsai and Stephanie D’Orso. — Macklin Reid photo
Team Curtis had a 14-element Rube Goldberg machine featuring Legos, blocks, balls, cars and cups. Team members are, from left: Simon Jupp, Colin Tarpey, Adam Biernat, Keenan Briggs and Sal Iovino. —Macklin Reid photo
Dominoes falling in serpentine lines, toy cars rolling down tracks, pendulums unleashed, balls catapulted — the Rube Goldberg Innovation Expo brings out the gadget-nerd lurking in many a strutting middle schooler’s soul.
A toy train engine from a pre-schooler’s Thomas the Tank Engine set ran into a domino-style line of Jenga blocks with playing cards taped onto them, starting the chain reaction designed by the Holyhead Harpies.
“They hit the car,” Harpie team member Aurora Mu said of the falling Jenga blocks. ”It rolls down a ramp, hits more Jenga blocks, then it hits a car which rolls across this set of blocks. The car gets pushed across and hits the lacrosse ball, and the lacrosse ball falls into a bucket attached to a pulley. That hits the lever and pushes it down and a ball rolls down a ramp and then it hits the book, which falls over and the book hits the button on the umbrella and it opens!”
Opening an umbrella was the challenge tackled by all of this year’s Rube Goldberg machines. There were 120 of the devious contraptions — each an homage to the gods of complication and complexity — made by teams of eighth graders from both Scotts Ridge and East Ridge middle schools entered in Ridgefield’s third annual Rube Goldberg Innovation Expo at East Ridge’s gymnasium Monday, March 21.
The students’ machines were judged on a point system with categories such as “Laugh barometer (0 to 5 points) How funny and whimsical is the machine?” and “Absurd complexity” awarding three points for less than 25 steps and 19 points for 70 to 75 steps.
Other judging criteria included “Does the machine repurpose everyday items?” And “Does the machine tell a story?”
There were three winning teams: Interstellar Astronomers, Sarah Isaac, Eliza Oakes, Katarina Sauter, Hannah Tomasetti; Quantum Philosophers, Matthew Brooks, Jillian Buczek, Nicholas Dillon, Liam Flaherty; and The Twinkling Teslas, Questin McQuilkin, Leo Rector, Maximus Schoepfer, Sam Sulzinsky.
The winning teams will have the Ridgefield schools pay for their entry into the National Middle School Online Rube Goldberg contest. Ridgefield had two finalists in last year’s online event.
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Kimberly Beck explained how the students’ absurdist contraptions emerged from their middle school STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning.
“Earlier in the school year, the middle school teachers conducted a mini unit of study and had the students do a ‘Rube Goldberg-like’ STEM project in all the eighth grade science classes. This served as the foundation for understanding the basic elements of the project, as well as inspiration to participate in the District Innovation Expo,” Beck said.
“Teachers then support interested students in team development and early machine planning. Beginning in January, the design, construction and testing of the machines was done outside of school time with ongoing consultative support provided by the teachers.
“This year we had our highest participation, with approximately 120 students on 42 separate teams.”
With roughly 400 eighth graders in the two middle schools, that’s more than a quarter of students taking part in the activity, which is done mostly after school.
The event had support from Ridgefield High School students and numerous adults, including teachers, parents, Ridgefield Public Schools staff and 13 judges including high school science staff, school board members and former members. There were also community guest judges such as Melissa & Doug toy designer Brett Almstead, physicist Darwin Ellis of Books on the Common, architect Anthony Nicholetti, Sanjay Tripathi of IBM, First Selectman Rudy Marconi, Police Chief John Roche and Deputy Emergency Manager Dick Aarons.
“This was a great event,” Beck said. “…As much fun as this was for the students, it is for all of the adults involved. I got lots of positive feedback.”
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