The inventors of tomorrow
Wantagh students building machines for Rube Goldberg competition
A group of Wantagh High School students are looking for the most complicated ways to perform the simplest of tasks. That’s the Rube Goldberg way, and that’s exactly who they are trying to emulate.
Four teams from Wantagh’s Rube Goldberg club will take part in a competition this Saturday at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City. This year, the teams have to build a machine that will erase either a whiteboard or chalkboard. The process to erase the board must consist of 20 steps.
Students have been working on their machines for months. “It’s a pretty big commitment, considering a lot of us are involved in other activities,” said senior Dylan Samperi, who is one of the leaders of his team, Rube Goldberg Construction Inc. He and his peers are building a construction-themed machine, so elements will include scaffolding, pickup trucks and dumpsters.
Teammate Zach Diaks, also a senior, said it is an intense process to construct a machine. There is a lot of trial and error, he explained, which often means going back to the drawing board.
Freshman Kyleigh Watson, who is also on their team, is hoping to learn a lot from the senior members, so she can step into a leadership role in the future. She noted the importance of teamwork and listening to everyone’s ideas.
The Rube Goldberg club is led by Renee McDermott, the district’s Horizons teacher and science research advisor, and Kathy Cahill, director of science and technology education. They are overseeing about 60 students, split up among the four teams.
McDermott said she loves watching the entire design process. She noted that while she and Cahill are there to provide guidance, the students rarely need any intervention. “I get to stand back,” she said, “and just watch this take place because they really are leading this problem solving on their own.”
After completing their machines, the students will actually have to take them apart, load the pieces into cars, bring them to the Cradle of Aviation, and put them back together again. They will draw sketches and take countless cell phone pictures to make sure everything goes back in the right spot.
“It’s a big production,” McDermott said. “Something you spent months on has to be recreated in an hour.”
