Rube Goldberg contest gives new meaning to 'reduce, reuse and recycle'

Argonne's 11th annual contest

ARGONNE, Ill. (Jan. 30, 2006) — The mantra of "reduce, reuse and recycle" will take on a new level of meaning for students who participate in Argonne National Laboratory's 11th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Friday, Feb. 24.

The contest challenges high school student teams to build a complicated machine that takes at least 20 steps to cut or shred into strips five sheets of 8 ½ by 11, 20-lb. paper individually with a shredder and place the shredded paper in a recycle bin. The machines will be put to the test in the contest which kicks off at 10:30 a.m. at Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier.

Up to 12 teams can compete. Teams registered so far for this year's contest are:

The winning team will receive a traveling trophy to display until the 2007 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 also will have the opportunity to demonstrate its winning machine at Argonne National Laboratory on the day of its tour and may also have the opportunity to exhibit its machine at Purdue University's national collegiate Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, Saturday, April 1, on the Purdue campus.

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 2006 Illinois State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest to be held Saturday, April 8, at the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. They will compete against the top three teams from the Friday, March 10, 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 third annual National Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools to be held Friday, April 28, at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisc.

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/Careers/Education/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.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.