Five McKenzie County 4-H preteens participated in the Second Annual North Dakota 4-H State Rube Goldberg Competition held on July 20 at the North Dakota State Fair in Minot.
Brandon Spacher of Banks Willing Workers 4-H Club, Gracyn Darrington of Star 3, Nicholas Ellis of Storm Riders and Kyle Best and Jaden Murphy, both of The Young Guns, all shared their team contraption that successfully put a quarter into a piggy bank in more than 7 steps.
The team prepared a recordkeeping journal, a poster and presentation of their experiences and chain reaction steps to complete the task, which was shared with three judges and the public.
The team, which they named “McKenzie Mad Engineers,” was awarded red ribbons for their project.
The goal of this competition is to encourage critical thinking, creativity, innovation and problem solving in a non-traditional learning event and to have FUN in the process. Youth utilize their STEM knowledge and skills to solve problems, make a plan and design a solution.
Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who was best known for the wacky inventions that appeared in his comics. His cartoons appeared in newspapers for more than 50 years.
A Rube Goldberg is an overly complex contraption that does a simple task. The Rube Goldberg contraption uses everyday items in a series of chain-reaction steps that accomplish a task. Rube Goldberg allows youth to use physics, engineering, humor and storytelling.
For more information, please contact NDSU Extension/McKenzie County at 701-444-3451.
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