(Orange, CA)—Santiago Canyon College (SCC) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Club placed first in the Division III Online Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. This club entered this national competition with their Rube Goldberg “How to Apply a Band-Aid™” machine. The team, made up of seven members, competed online against eight community and four-year colleges.
The Rube Goldberg Contest took place in Columbus, Ohio, but due to scheduling conflicts for SCC STEM Club, they opted for the online competition. The contest asked students to create a machine that would properly and effectively apply a Band-Aid™. The machine must remain reliable throughout the entire process, with the only human aid to initiate the first movement. The machine must also exhibit a theme throughout its course, while entertaining and producing humor for the judges and spectators.
The SCC STEM Club chose the theme titled, “Rube Goldberg Goes to the Museum.” Throughout its approximately 22-second process, the machine takes its viewers on a tour through science and history. The tour begins at the solar system exhibit, where one will witness an asteroid flying through space until it crashes into earth. This leads the viewer on an adventure through the museum, where one visits a dinosaur exhibit, a human anatomy exhibit and many others. The tour ends in the gift shop, where a Band-Aid™ is purchased and applied to a broken dinosaur.
Each member of SCC Stem Club aided in the completion of this project. The team included Angelica Escobar, Adam Mizban, Patrick Behr, Francisco Franco, Derek Bergner, Rita Leger, and Diana Portillo. The video content for the competition website was created by videographer, Noor Said. SCC team leader and physics professor Cynthia Swift said, “It was incredible to watch the creation of the project, and the end result all come together. I am so proud of the team, and all their hard work!”
Reuben “Rube” Goldberg (1883-1970), was a cartoonist most widely known for his whacky or zany illustrations of machines that would complete a simple task. His illustrations were geared towards creating a satire in response to the influx of machines in creation at that time. Despite their wacky process, each machine created a logical outcome.
To view the SCC STEM Club “Rube Goldberg Goes to the Museum” machine, please visit https://www.rubegoldberg.com/teams/scc-stem-club-orange-2017-2/. For more information on SCC STEM Club, contact Cynthia Swift at swift_cynthia@sccollege.edu or at (714) 628-4707. Information on Rube Goldberg and the contests can be viewed at www.rubegoldberg.com.
About Santiago Canyon College
Santiago Canyon College (SCC) serves about 17,000 students each semester. The college prepares students for transfer to four-year institutions and careers, and provides courses for personal and professional development, as well as customized training for business and industry. The college is recognized for its adult education program which keeps the working adult - and seniors - in mind by offering flexible schedules, and community locations. Serving the residents of Anaheim Hills, Orange, Tustin, and Villa Park, SCC is one of two comprehensive colleges under the auspices of the Rancho Santiago Community College District.
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