Dear School Leader,
April 12, 2020
I am writing to invite your students to participate in an exciting program we have developed at
Fay School. We call this program the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (see attached materials or visit our webpage at http://web.mit.edu/museum/rubegoldbergcontest/2006/index.html
).
In short, this is a competition modeled after MIT’s annual machine contest in which young engineers create innovative and complex devices to perform simple tasks. This program, co- sponsored by GE, EMC 2 , MIT, and Fay School, is designed to foster scientific literacy as it seeds student interest in the field of engineering.
Teams will be made up of middle school students, including those from urban, suburban, public, parochial, independent, charter, and home schools.
Through the generosity of Fay School’s Grandparent’s Association, which is funding the cost for all tools and materials and providing a faculty coach stipend and a travel voucher for each team, this is a no cost proposition for schools interested in participating.
Due to what we expect will be a great interest in this opportunity, we anticipate that our goal of registering 20 teams will be met very quickly. Registration will be closed on 12/22/06, so please take a close look at the enclosed materials, read them carefully, and apply today!
To apply, complete the attached application and send it to me as soon as possible. With questions, please reach me at cschoberl@fayschool.org.
Respectfully,
Christopher A. Schoberl, MAT, Ed.D.
Academic Dean, Fay School

Please submit Updated Form Morning of Competition
Name of Team:
School Name:
School Address (all materials will be mailed here):
Name of Team Members (6 Students: no more, no less , Grades 7-9; indicate Team Captain):
Name of Faculty Coach:
Position of Faculty Coach at School:
Email Address and Phone number of Faculty Coach:
Statement of Commitment:
I have thoroughly read and understood the materials for Fay School’s Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. I am aware of the commitment of time, personnel, and student effort associated with my School’s participation on April 14 th 2007. With this commitment in mind, I endorse my School’s participation in the Contest.
Name of School Principal, Head of School, or Home Leader:__________________________________________
Signature of School Principal, Head of School, or Home Leader:_______________________________________
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2
EMC 2
Task for the Third Annual Contest:
To Be Revealed during Mandatory Faculty Training at MIT, Saturday, 1/27/07
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Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
April 14, 2007 at Fay School
Contest Background
Through the Science and Mathematics Departments at Fay School, students interested in chances to apply their studies have found ready opportunities in problem-solving projects designed by their teachers. Whether designing and building a scale model of the ideal house, creating a mouse-trap-powered contraption designed to extinguish a lit candle, or constructing a package that will allow an egg to survive a 75 foot drop, the enthusiasm and joy with which
Fay students have approached these challenges have inspired school leaders to develop the
Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
The best-known Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is the national event held annually by Theta
Tau at Purdue University. The Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools is affiliated with Theta Tau's national contest. The Fay School Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is affiliated with MIT.
By joining forces with MIT, and with the sponsorship of GE and EMC
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, Fay School will provide an opportunity for students in grades 7-9 to compete against other students from other middle schools in the only national competition of its type for students of this age. Such a contest will afford students interested in careers in engineering an opportunity to apply and synthesize their thoughts in a complex and inherently interesting problem solving environment.
Such higher order thinking is at the core of what it means to be an educated person, and this contest will provide a showcase for the brightest thinkers among middle school students from the Boston area and potentially from around the country.
Rube Goldberg
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is named after cartoonist Reuben Lucius Goldberg, the spirit of whose work inspires the contest's weird and engineeringly challenging machines and crazy contraptions. For more than 50 years, Goldberg's cartoons poked fun at machines and gadgets which he saw as overly complex. His inventions became so well known that dictionaries added "rube goldberg" to its listing, defining it as "accomplishing by extremely complex, roundabout means what seemingly could be done simply" (The American Heritage
Dictionary of the English Language, 4 th Edition).
Goldberg’s "inventions," drawn for our pleasure, will work. By inventing excessively complex ways to accomplish simple tasks, he entertained us as he made fun of machines that seemed to be designed to make our lives easier. Goldberg himself claimed that the machines were a
"symbol of man's capacity for exerting maximum effort to achieve minimal results." He believed that most people preferred doing things the hard way instead of using simpler solutions.
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The Fay School MIT/GE/EMC 2 Contest
Funded by the Fay School Grandparent’s Fund and co-sponsored by MIT, GE, and EMC 2
, Fay
School will invite other middle schools to compete in a spring term Rube Goldberg meet. The machine earning the most points according to the Official Judging Scorecard, while meeting all other criteria, will win the contest. The task for the machine to accomplish has been selected by MIT and will be revealed to registered schools during the mandatory faculty training session at MIT in late January. Participation in the contest will be at no cost to the schools invited. In addition, Fay will provide participating schools with:
 a task to complete,
 a staff of judges drawn from MIT and the Contest’s co-sponsors, GE and EMC 2 ,
 consultants from MIT,
 competition t-shirts
 team faculty coach training at MIT,
 clear instructions and guidelines,
 the competition venue,
 a travel allowance of up to $150.00,
 a $350.00 stipend for each faculty coach,
 lunch and snacks throughout the day,
 tools to build the machine on the day of competition, and
 all materials to be used in the construction of the machine (to be provided at the faculty coach training in late January).
Awards earned by the overall winning team will include a team trophy and a plaque, engraved with the winning team’s name, to remain at Fay School. The overall winning team will also receive an opportunity to display its machine the MIT Museum, a fieldtrip to the MIT
Museum, and tuition free participation in a “School, Teacher and Group Program” offered by the Museum. Second and third place runners up to the overall winner will also receive recognition. In addition, trophies will be awarded to winners of the categories of Machine
Complexity, Machine Creativity, and Teamwork/Presentation to the Judges.
Faculty Coaches
Faculty coaches will help teams determine how to construct their machine to best accomplish the task assigned, provide transportation to and from Fay School, and to supervise their team members throughout the competition. As a coach, the faculty member may not actively
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participate in the creation of the machine before or during the competition, but should be available for consultation with team members throughout their participation in the contest. In this, the coach should answer direct questions with direct answers and may even be a sounding board for, or provide a reality check.
Coaches should also provide a “moral presence” in accordance with what is right and proper as well as with a given school’s mission and code of conduct, be available during student work times, and ensure a safe and fun experience throughout the competition. Faculty coaches may help students prepare their team’s presentation to the judges and certify that all competition rules were adhered to. Finally, on the day of the competition, the Faculty Coach will manage the conduct of his or her team, and remind them that poor behavior or sportsmanship may be grounds for disqualification.
Faculty Coaches will be provided with required training session at MIT on Saturday, 1/27/07, from 9:30am-2:30pm, prior to the competition date. All teams must be represented by the primary Faculty Coach or an alternate. Failure to make this meeting may disqualify a team from the competition and a replacement team will be selected from the waiting list.
Timeline/Competition Guidelines/At the Contest
By December 22nd, 2006
Registration Deadline
January 27th, 2007, 9:30am-2:30pm
Training of Faculty Coaches at MIT (information to follow). On this date, materials and information will be provided to the Coaches (including the machine to be built, packing list of materials, the materials themselves, and a list of tools available on the day of competition).
April 14, 2007
Competition Date, Fay School Harlow Gymnasium
9:15am-10:00am, Arrival and Registration
10:00am-1:00pm, Building/Dry Runs (teams should schedule their own breaks according to need)
1:00pm-1:45pm, Lunch in the Reinke Building
2:00pm-4:00pm, Judging of Machines according to random judging order (see judging order in registration packet). All teams are encouraged to watch the judging of the machines.
4:00pm-4:30, Awards presentation
4:30-5:00, Spectators permitted to view the machines on the gym floor. Teams to break down machines, discard materials into the trash barrels, and bring barrels to the truck outside the gym doors. Rube materials to be recycled should be placed in the appropriate bins (not the water bottle recycling bins, which will also be present).
 The number of members on a team will be 6 students in grades 7-9. The competition is limited to 16 teams, selected by the Contest Steering Committee.
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All participants must wear their competition t-shirts during the competition.
Each team must create a machine to accomplish the stated task using the box of items provided (see Official Materials List).
 Each team will be provided with a 15’X15’X15’ foot area in which to construct its
 machine and perform for the judges.
A list of tools to be provided on the day of the competition will be included in the materials delivered to each team during Coach training at MIT. All tools will be made available on the day of the competition (see Official Tool List).
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 No tools other than those provided may be used.
 Teams must arrive at the competition venue with their materials in the exact condition in which they received them, and judges will certify compliance prior to machine
 construction. Holes drilled, screws or fasteners attached, markings of any type, etc. will result in the forfeiture of the item. The team may bring plans, templates, other design, construction, or presentation aids.
No part of a team’s machine or any associated materials may be attached in any way to the walls, floor, or ceiling of the competition venue. No action of building, cutting, or drilling shall damage furniture provided at the Competition venue.
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One member of each team must be designated Team Captain. The Captain will lead his or her team’s presentation of the machine to the judges, including an explanation of the process of creating the machine, a detailed Rube Goldberg style illustration and detailed description of how the machine works (including each step of the process), and the outcome. Points will be awarded for creativity.
Each team will have a total time of 15 minutes for the presentation of its machine to the judges (recommended 5 minutes) and the successful run of its machine (recommended
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10 minutes). Should a team exceed the 15 minute period, it will be disqualified.
The team with the highest overall score will win the competition. Trophies will be awarded to the overall winning team and 2nd and 3rd place runners up, and to the teams earning the highest scores in each of the three judging areas of complexity of the machine, machine creativity, and the quality of teamwork/presentation to the judges.
No team shall win more than one award.
Each machine must be safe to the approval of the judges.
Machines must incorporate a minimum of five different steps in completing the defined task. A “step” is defined as “a discrete action that (1) contributes to the completion of the Rube Goldberg task by (2) transferring or releasing energy. For an action to qualify as a ‘step,’ the machine must not be able to complete the Rube Goldberg task if the action fails. An action will not qualify as a ‘step’ if it is part of a series of side events, any one of which can fail without preventing the machine from completing the Rube
Goldberg task. No action in such a series of irrelevant side events will qualify as a step.” Also, repeating actions will not qualify as more than one step. A team will be disqualified from competition if it builds a machine that does not meet this minimum threshold of complexity.
 A machine must not imply profane, indecent, or lewd expressions.
 A machine may not display any corporate or sponsor logos.
 Each team is responsible for the security of its own machine, but intentional destructive action against other machines is cause for disqualification. In addition, misbehavior at any time is grounds for disqualification.
 A penalty will be assessed for any human intervention on a machine in motion (see the judging form), defined as any act necessary to adjust the machine’s performance
 between the start of a run and its completion.
Teams may bring or invite spectators, but all spectators must remain in designated areas and will be permitted to view the competition from approved locations only.
 Contestants are responsible for inventorying their tools, removing their machine, and discarding/recycling related debris immediately following the contest.
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