Student voting machines to cast ballots in 20 steps

ARGONNE, Ill. (Jan. 16, 2004) — As if elections weren't already complicated enough, students from Chicago area high schools participating in Argonne National Laboratory's ninth annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will soon try to make them more so, but it's all in the name of engineering, fun and learning.

The contest challenges student teams to build machines that take at least 20 steps to select, mark and cast an election ballot. The machines will be put to the test in Argonne's Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, Friday, Feb. 13, at Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. The contest will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the judges reviewing machines. The first machine will run about 11 a.m.

Up to 12 teams may enter the contest. Teams participating this year are Roberto Clemente H.S., Chicago; William Fremd H.S., Palatine; Glenbrook South H.S., Glenview; Hubbard H.S., Chicago; Maine Township H.S. South, Park Ridge; Minooka Commmunity H.S., Minooka; Morgan Park Academy, Chicago; Riverside-Brookfield H.S., Riverside; St. Anne Community H.S., St. Anne; St. Ignatius College Prep, Chicago; and Wilmington H.S., Wilmington.

The winning team will receive a traveling trophy to display until the 2005 contest and a tour of Argonne, which will include the Advanced Photon Source, and lunch with Argonne scientists. In addition, each team member and the team's faculty advisor will receive an Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine wrist watch and an Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirt. The first-place team will also have the opportunity to demonstrate its winning machine at Argonne National Laboratory on the day of their tour and may also have the opportunity to exhibit its machine at Purdue University's national collegiate Rube Goldberg machine contest Saturday, April 3.

Second-place team members and their faculty advisor will receive Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine wrist watches and Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.

Third-place team members and their faculty advisor will receive Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.

A trophy will be awarded to the team that wins the People's Choice Award, to be chosen by popular vote by people attending the Chicago Children's Museum during the contest.

The top three teams will have the opportunity to compete in the 2004 Illinois State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest to be held Saturday, April 17, at the Chicago Children's Museum. They will compete against the top three teams from the March 12, high school Rube Goldberg Machine Contest at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign's Engineering Open House.

The top two teams in the Illinois State Championship will have the opportunity to compete in the new National Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools Friday, April 30, at the Wisconsin Exhibition Center, State Fair Park, Wisc. The winning national championship team will receive $1,000, and each student team member will receive a $2,000 college scholarship. The second place national team will receive $500, and each student team member will receive a $1,000 scholarship. For more information see the national contest Website at www.uwm.edu/CEAS//rube/. Argonne will work with teams in its contest to help meet deadlines for the national contest.

Rube Goldberg machine contests are inspired by Reuben Lucius Goldberg, whose cartoons combined simple household items into complex devices to perform trivial tasks. The machines combine the principles of physics and engineering, using common objects such as marbles, mousetraps, stuffed animals, electric mixers, vacuum cleaners, rubber tubes, bicycle parts and anything else that happens to be on hand.

Information about the Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools is available on the World Wide Web at www.anl.gov/OPA/rube/rubeteams.html.

Argonne's Division of Educational Programs and Communications and Public Affairs Division sponsor the February event in collaboration with Chicago Children's Museum, and the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, held annually at Purdue University. The event is licensed by Rube Goldberg, Inc.

"Rube Goldberg" is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg, Inc., which can be reached by fax at (212) 371-3761, by e-mail at license@rubegoldberg.com or information@rubegoldberg.com, or on the World Wide Web at www.rgmc.com.

Chicago Children's Museum's mission is to create a community where play and learning connect. For more information about Chicago Children's Museum, call (312) 527-1000 or visit www.ChiChildrensMuseum.org.

The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Donna Jones Pelkie (630/252-5501 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.