Section 101 website client https://rubegoldberg.com is once again sponsoring their amazing Rube Goldberg Online Machine contest. Registration begins on September 15^th for the 2015 contest; this year’s task is to Erase a Blackboard (last year’s was Zip a Zipper!). As is always the case, students are encouraged to work on complex solutions for simple problems, Rube Goldberg-style.

This year, the contest has a new rulebook. The contest now has three age groups for participation:

DIVISION I:

Ages 11 – 14 (Middle School)

DIVISION II:

Ages 14 – 18 (High School)

DIVISION III:

Ages 18+ (College)

In addition, all divisions will compete under the same set of rules, which have been expanded to allow entrants to build outside of the box. You can read all the newest updates here. 

Teams are made up of at least three participants and a teacher/parent advisor is required for Divisions I and II. Each Online team gets to create a web page to showcase their machines in action though video posts, photos and social media. Teams also have to submit a list of steps it took to complete their task –with a minimum of 10 steps for Division I and a minimum of 20 steps for Divisions II and III. As in years previous, Section 101 powers the team pages, which allows members to customize them with our easy-to-use tools. Team pages close for editing on March 3, 2015.  Online judging begins on March 4, 2015 and People’s Choice voting begins on March 27^th. In the past, participants have been actively utilizing social media to show off their pages and encourage people to vote for their team. Division II and III winners will compete at a LIVE world contest in 2015. Visit the Rube Goldberg website for the latest updates! 

Dating back over 60 years, the contest’s namesake is Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, humorist and inventor, Reuben Lucius Goldberg, who specialized in drawing whimsical machines with every-day objects that performed a seemingly simple task. Goldberg’s legacy lives on through these yearly contests, as students nationwide build all-encompassing machines that complete the annual task, all in the spirit of Rube’s illustrations.

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