Rube Goldberg was famous for developing overly complicated machines to accomplish simple tasks. Feel like flexing your engineering and logic skills? Help in this collaborative event that will challenge you to design, build and engineer a delightfully complex machine with an (nearly) endless supply of materials. A Science Museum Oklahoma program. Limited to 30 participants. This program is intended for students in grades 6-12. Registration is required.

Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist popular in the 1920s who liked to draw hilariously complicated gadgets meant to do simple tasks. He was poking fun at inventors a bit, and also at Americans' great love of new inventions, however silly. These days, many schools and museums hold Rube Goldberg machine-building contests. Usually there's a goal, such as blowing out a candle in no less than 20 steps. Points are given for how many steps the device takes (the more the better), how complicated and goofy it is, and whether it actually works.
SOURCE: Not-So-Simple Inventions. Ask (serial online). February 2017;16(2):22. Available from: MasterFILE Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 8, 2017