RSS 2.0 FeedThursday, December 15, 2011, Wantagh Seaford Citizen
Wantagh Rube Goldberg machine at conference
WHS student goes to TEDYouth.
WHS SCIENCE STUDENTS built a complicated Rube Goldberg machine, which was displayed on stage at the annual TEDYouth Conference in NYC.
Kaitlin Pfundstein, a sophomore in Ody Svolos’ science class, was chosen as a winner in TEDYouth’s essay contest. TED is a non-profit organization that brings together people from the fields of technology, entertainment and design. Organizers of TED believe in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately the world. This year for the first time, organizers of TED conferences created an event for school-age children. The theme for the 2011 TEDYouth Day was “Play, Learn, Build and Share.” Kaitlin was one of four students invited to attend TEDYouth’s first conference in New York City on November 25.
Wantagh Director of Science and Technology Kathy Cahill stated, “In her essay, Kaitlin wrote passionately about her experience with the Rube Goldberg competition during the 2010–11 school year. The organizers of TEDYouth were very interested in this. They sent an email inquiring if Wantagh would be willing to create a Rube Goldberg machine that would serve as the backdrop for the speaker podium at The Times Center in Manhattan. This was a wonderful and exciting opportunity for the students and the district.”
Named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, sculptor and author, a Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. Because this was a complicated machine to set up, Wantagh High School was allowed to bring 15 students to New York City to assemble the invention, even though 20 students originally built the machine: Zachary Bindell, Andrew Bloniarz, Kate Boyce, Shaymus Contorno, Wes Craig, Matt Dolley, Gene Gaffney, Ariana Gagliardi, Alyssa Kelly, Avery Kratzer, Perri Levine, Elaina Mansley, Richard Myers, Michael O’Hara, Jaclyn Onufrey, Kenny Peluso, Kaitlyn Pfundstein, Krystin Sinclair, Lindsey Stevens and Bridget Wiffler.
Wantagh’s Rube Goldberg machine was displayed on stage for the duration of the conference, which was streamed live on the Internet. At the end, the students set off the machine for all in attendance.
