Bayfair’s marvellous machine

YiA 2016 winners from Mount Maunganui Intermediate Benjamin Lindsey, 12, (orange), and Sam Petersen, 12, (yellow) with designer of the Rube Goldberg machine Richard Parker from Black Chilli Design. Photos: Tracy Hardy.

Richard Parker has been busy building a marvellous machine to inspire active young minds over the school holidays.

Commissioned for the Young Innovator Awards – YiA – it is currently on show at Bayfair.

Made of recycled materials and about three metres long, it has been designed for a whimsical Professor Goji Berry who needs to water her superfood - a piece of broccoli that tastes like chocolate.

'It's a big Rube Goldberg machine,” says Richard. 'He was a cartoonist who did cartoons of extremely complicated machines that do things like turn the pages of your book. It's a nightmare to be honest.”

'The YiA Intermediate Challenge this year is called The Can Do Challenge,” says YiA Project Manager Stacey Jones. 'We ask local intermediate school students in teams of six to eight to build a complex machine to carry out a simple challenge, in this case to water a plant with a watering can.”

Richard's machine is a triptych, each panel individually framed.

'In the rules, the kids get an extra five points for humour,” says Richard. 'So I've used a lobster, a dishwashing liquid bottle, a can, - it makes them think about recycling.

'Their board will be a third the size of mine.”

Benjamin Lindsey and Sam Petersen, both 12, were part of last year's winning team of eight.

'We won a $1000 science trip,” says Benjamin. 'We went to Hamilton and did lots of fun stuff, went to the Hamilton Zoo, the observatory and the Olympic Velodrome.”

'Last year they built a Rube Goldberg machine but it wasn't on a board like this, it was in the classroom,” says Benjamin's mum Claire Lindsay who facilitated her son's team. 'This year we're trying to make it more accessible for a greater range of schools, so limiting the space it can be built on makes it much easier to do.”

'This competition fosters scientific literacy, collaboration and curiosity through building a Rube Goldberg machine,” says House of Science CEO Chris Duggan. 'There are excellent prizes up for grabs thanks to generous local sponsors so get your team registered and get creating!”

YiA Intermediate Challenge applications are open now. Registrations close on May 2. Every team that enters will receive a custom designed pegboard to build their machine with up to 50 available. A workshop to learn how to build a machine will be held on May 8. Students need to be part of a House of Science registered school to enter.

The Young Innovator Awards is a partnership between House of Science, Priority One's Instep programme, Woods the Creative Agency and Bluelab Corporation. As well as an Intermediate category, there is a Senior and Junior category which tasks local students to come up with an idea for an innovative product or service that will help make the world a better place. The winning entries, judged by New Zealand's top innovators, win cash prizes and YiA scholarships up to the value of $7,000, providing invaluable work experience with leading Bay of Plenty businesses.

The 'Marvellous Machine' will be on show at Bayfair from April 24-29 from 10am-3pm, and from 1pm-3pm on ANZAC Day, Tuesday April 25.

This year's judges for the Awards include Nike's innovation developer, Wade Flannagan who is travelling from Nike, Portland for the event. As well as judging, he is speaking at the Young Innovator Awards Forum at Classic Flyers from 7.30-9.30am on August 11.

For more information visit yia.co.nz/machine

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