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Rube Goldberg Challenge Weekend
March 12, 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
An event every day that begins at 12:00 pm, repeating until March 12, 2023
Join us for a weekend of hilariously inventive machine building, art making and problem solving inspired by Rube Goldberg. The Museum will host two days of special activities that challenge you to build, create, move and play in creative and inventive ways.
Saturday Only, 12:30 – 3:30 pm
At MuseumLab
Watch kid-led teams compete in the 2023 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest Live! Local schools and STEM groups compete to create a “Lunchable” making machine in the Contest’s Western PA Regionals. With host O-Ryan the O’Mazing!
Learn more here.
Saturday & Sunday
- Participate in The Rube Goldberg Cartoon Contest®
DRAW your own Rube Goldberg invention cartoon and send it in to enter the competition. Open to all ages. For more information about the contest, click here.
- Make Rube Goldberg machines in MAKESHOP
Work together to create and activate chain-reaction contraptions that use everyday objects to complete simple tasks in the most overcomplicated, inefficient and hilarious ways possible! - Rube Goldberg Storytime: Listen to the hilariously creative stories of little Rube and his adventures. Written by Jennifer George, Rube Goldberg’s granddaughter, these stories imagine Rube Goldberg as a kid today, inventing hilarious ways to solve his ordinary problems.
- Move in creative and inventive way through dance and song
- Meet inventors, learn how they came up with their inventions and see what their work inspires you to build
About Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg (1883–1970) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American cartoonist, inventor, innovator, and the only person whose name is an adjective in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Learn more about him at The Rube Goldberg Institute for Innovation and Creativity.
What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?
Rube Goldberg Machines are crazy contraptions that solve simple tasks in the most complicated and hilarious way possible.
A Rube Goldberg Machine® solves a simple problem in the most ridiculously inefficient way possible. Their funny functionality invites us to think more deeply about machines and mechanized processes, gadgets and technologies, and the very human ways in which we use them.