Why this event?
This activity offers a funny, engaging challenge designed to unleash creativity and foster healthy teamwork. The concept of making things far more complicated than they need to be is actually a powerful way to make the point that simple is usually better.
A bit of history on the inspiration behind Chain Reaction: Rube Goldberg was a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor. He somehow managed to combine all his talents into one genius-level superpower. Goldberg would dream up and illustrate a series of bizarrely complex mechanisms meant to accomplish very simple tasks.
Once divided into smaller teams, your group will move into friendly competition mode as they design and assemble their own “simple” machines. Each team designs builds and tests a number of simple machines. But ultimately, each of their individual inventions must also work together as part of a greater whole. Since the mission is challenging, teams need to think strategically as they develop a common vision to bring their crazy inventions to life. Collaboration has never been so fun.
