Annual Rube Goldberg Contest Challenges Students to "Feed a Pet"

The contest is scheduled for Saturday at Batesville High School.

Photo provided.

(Ripley County, Ind.) - Genesis: Pathways to Success and the Batesville Community School Corporation are pleased to announce that the 14th Annual Regional Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will take place on Saturday, February 22 at Batesville High School. The public is warmly invited to attend this family-friendly competition.

The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest®️(RGMC) is an event where students of all ages compete to imagine, design, and create complicated machines in a fun and competitive forum. Machines are constructed from a variety of found or discarded items. This year’s Rube Goldberg machines are challenged to “Feed A Pet” with a minimum of 15 steps and a maximum of 75 steps (Division I), and a minimum of 20 steps with no maximum number of steps (Division II). These ingenious contraptions are guaranteed to captivate and spark inspiration in kids of every age.

The schools competing in this year’s Division I (Middle School) Rube Goldberg Machine Contest include Batesville Middle School, Our Lady of Lourdes, and St. Louis Catholic School. Division II (High School) competitors are Anderson High School, Batesville High School, Oldenburg Academy, and the Ripley County Engineering Academy (Jac-Cen-Del High School).

“We are excited to witness the imaginative brilliance of our local students at this year’s regional Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. This challenge calls for a unique blend of precision, creativity, and teamwork, pushing participants to engineer chain-reaction contraptions that not only accomplish the task at hand but do so with individuality and an entertainment factor,” stated Clarice Patterson, Executive Director of Genesis: Pathways to Success. Patterson further stated, “The seemingly simple act of feeding a pet will become a canvas for these young minds to showcase their ingenuity and problem-solving skills. We are eagerly anticipating these inventive solutions that will illustrate once again that there’s no limit to what can be achieved when creativity takes center stage.”

Doors open to the public at 10:15 AM and the first machine run will begin at 10:30 AM. The contest is free to attend thanks to the generosity of local sponsors.

Sponsors for the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest include the Ripley County Community Foundation, Southeastern IN REMC, and Franklin County Community Foundation.

To learn more information about this year’s upcoming Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, please contact Genesis: Pathways to Success by emailing info@genesisp2s.org, calling 812-933-1098, or stopping by the office at 13 E. George Street, Suite B, Batesville, IN, 47006.