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Southwestern Academy’s Annual Science Fair had it all.
Students in grades 6-12 participated in the San Marino campus’s fair, consisting of various experimental projects and “Rube Goldberg” creations. Although this year’s science fair showcased a couple of changes, students quickly adapted to the new rules.
The Southwestern Science Department decided to shake things up a bit by having students decide on working on bigger, better Rube Goldbergs or following the same experimental project rules from previous years. This was also the first year that students had to follow the national competition regulations for their Rube Goldberg projects. With this change, there was more space for students and visitors to walk-through the fair, more space for students to set up their Rube Goldbergs, and allowed students to learn responsibility and how to better work in groups.
The purpose of a Rube Goldberg project is to perform a simple task—such as inserting a coin into a piggy bank, which was this year’s task—by using pulleys, levers, screws, inclined planes, wheel and axles, and wedges. Teams consisted of up to 10 students, the largest groups the school has ever seen, and were asked to be as creative as possible with their machines. Some