The Sun Devil Fitness Complex at the Polytechnic campus hosted a full day of zany engineering fun at the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest on Saturday, April 2.
About 200 students and spectators watched the Division I competition among middle schoolers aged 11-14. The winners were:
- 1st Place: EDUPRIZE Eagles, EDUPRIZE Charter Schools, Queen Creek, Arizona
- 2nd Place: RubeCrafters, Veritas Homeschoolers, Tempe, Arizona
- 3rd Place: Jaguars, Kyrene Aprende Middle School, Phoenix, Arizona
Team members of the RubeCrafters Division I team from Veritas Homeschoolers present their machines to parents and judges. The RubeCrafters placed 2nd place in Division I and also won the STEAM award for Art.
James Larson, a sophomore in electrical systems engineering, announces the winners of the STEAM Labs Awards.
A team of elementary school students from Lujan-Chavez Elementary School in El Paso, Texas also came to showcase their machine at the Division I competition. The night before, they screenprinted team T-shirts at the TechShop makerspace partnered with ASU in Chandler, Arizona and headed out for pizza and the i.d.e.a. Museum after they competed.
Three high schools competed in the Division II for students aged 14-18, watched by about 75 students and spectators.
This was the first year the competition included a high school competition, and a number of teams ended up dropping out before the competition because they didn’t realize how much work it takes to build a functioning Rube Goldberg Machine.
The Division II winners were:
- 1st Place: Technical Difficulties, Veritas Homeschoolers, Tempe, Arizona
- 2nd Place: GCA STEAM Team, Gilbert Classical Academy, Gilbert, Arizona
- 3rd Place: Team Rocket, Highland High School, Gilbert, Arizona
This machine was created by Technical Difficulties, a team from Veritas Homeschoolers for Division II. The machine won 1st Place in the Division II (14-18 years old) competition and also earned the Art and Technology STEAM Labs awards.
Sponsors included a large number of Arizona science and engineering companies and organizations, including General Dynamics, the i.d.e.a. Museum, the Arizona Museum of Natural History, the Arizona Science Center, EMERGE, Arizona SciTech Festival, Arizona Department of Health,TechShop, Red Mountain High School and the International Test and Evaluation Association.
