Maine West High School wins state championship Rube Goldberg contest

ARGONNE, Ill. (April 20, 2004) — A team of students from Maine West High School has won the Illinois state championship Rube Goldberg machine contest, held April 17 at Chicago Children's Museum and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The four-member Maine West team defeated five other Illinois high schools by building the wackiest machine to take at least 20 steps to select, mark and cast an election ballot. Team members are Wiktor Stopka, Jakub Proszowski, Kristi Soch and David Post. Faculty advisor is Phil Sumida.

Second place in the contest went to Wilmington High School. Chicago 's Morgan Park Academy took third place.

The Maine West team received the Argonne Science Award and a $600 donation to the school's science program. The Wilmington team received a plaque and a $400 donation to the school's science program. The Morgan Park Academy team received a plaque and a $300 donation to the school's science program. Fourth- through sixth-place teams received a $200 donation to their schools' science programs .

By placing first and second, Maine West and Wilmington earned 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/ .

Schools qualified to participate in the Illinois state championship contest by placing in the top three spots in two contests held earlier this year, one sponsored by Argonne in collaboration with Chicago Children's Museum, and the second held at the engineering open house at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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 Illinois State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools is available on the World Wide Web at www.anl.gov/OPA/rube/rubechteams.htm .

Argonne sponsors the championship event in collaboration with the University of Illinois-Urbana, the 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.