Briggs Fundamental School team takes top prize in machine contest, qualifies for nationals

Hours after watching parts of the elaborate machine they created fly out of a trailer and shatter on the 60 Freeway, Briggs Fundamental students went from heartbreak to victory, winning first place in the second annual San Bernardino County Rube Goldberg competition on Nov. 4 in San Bernardino.

The Briggs team took First Place Overall, Creative Spark Award, Spirit of Rube Goldberg, Apprentice Choice Award, and qualified for the Rube Goldberg national competition, to be held next spring at a location to be determined.

The competition allows students to collaborate as a team to create a complex machine designed to achieve a simple task. This year’s competition challenge is “How to Pour a Bowl of Cereal.”

Approximately 200 students competed in the county event, representing teams from 10 school districts in the county that include three elementary schools, 13 middle schools, and five high schools.

Rube Goldberg was a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways, giving rise to the term Rube Goldberg machines. 

Briggs students involved in the project include Sydney Reyes, Ruby Landeros, Katrina Hitchcock, Alexander Henriquez, Hailey Ordonez, Gloria Camacho, Jasmine Coto, Camila Salas, Carolina Salas, Haiden Garcia, Jacky Chavez, Lindsey Moo, Sophia Vasquez, Matthew Ericson, Christian Vaca, Tate Turner, Tucker Turner, DJ Teasdale, Brooklyn Fuerstenberg, Angie Ramirez, and Madaline Seifert. Ten of the students -- Sydney, Ruby, Katrina, Alexander, Camila, Haiden, Jacky, Lindsey, Sophia, and Matthew – represented Briggs during the competition in San Bernardino. Their leaders are Briggs science teachers Danielle Weinstein and Danielle Encarnacion.

“Our students ranged from students with special needs to honors students,” Weinstein said. “This competition provided a space for students to be involved who ordinarily do not find themselves involved in other activities on campus. It was amazing to watch their minds at work and see their creativity come out in ways we never imagined.”

The team spent many hours constructing, testing and redesigning their machine and worked up until 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3 on the project. At 6:45 a.m. the next morning, they caravanned to the event. An open animal trailer was carrying their 10-foot-by-10-foot-by-8-foot project. Soon after entering the 60 Freeway at Ramona Avenue in Chino, students began texting their teachers that the sign for the machine was wobbling. Moments later, the sign broke off in the wind and students reported watching it shatter and spark along the 60 Freeway. The only parts of the sign that survived were a board and a letter R. Back on the road, the teachers group messaged their students on a plan to fix the project before judging began. Several students and their parents stopped along the way to purchase items needed for the repair. After checking into the competition in San Bernardino, the Briggs students quickly rebuilt the damaged sign portion of their machine.

“The students came together, determined to win,” Weinstein said. “While heartbroken, they did not let down! They persevered and came back to win!”

Weinstein said the Briggs’ machine embraced Chino’s dairy roots. The 42-step machine, told an elaborate story of how cereal and milk get into a bowl, including water purification, milking a cow, factory packaging, stocking store shelves, driving home, setting the table, and pouring cereal into a bowl. Students dressed as different parts of the story, including cows, farmers, factory workers, store clerks, and a chef.

The students dedicated their machine to Encarnacion’s mother, who unexpectedly passed away on Nov. 1.

Pictured:

Briggs Fundamental School eighth-graders take the stage after their elaborate machine won first place overall in the San Bernardino County Rube Goldberg competition on Nov. 4 in San Bernardino.

Briggs Fundamental School’s machine, designed to pour milk into a bowl.

Briggs students demonstrate their Rube Goldberg machine at an auditorium in San Bernardino.

The Briggs Fundamental School Rube Goldberg team pose for a group photo in San Bernadino. Some students dressed as cows, farmers, factory workers, and store clerks to illustrate the machine’s “farm to home” story for pouring a bowl of cereal.

(11/6/17)