SAMS sent three teams to this year’s middle school Chain Reaction Contraption competition at the Carnegie Science Center. At the competition, students are all issued the same secret challenge and then released to build rooms where they design and construct their contraptions. Each group works on a budget of “Science Bucks” and uses it to purchase materials from the supply store to build their devices. This year’s challenge was “What does Thanksgiving mean to you?” Every contraption needed to end with a reveal of the group’s answer to the challenge.

The three SAMS teams did a wonderful job on the design and construction portions of the event. One team created a contraption that mimicked various rides from Kennywood and finished with the reveal of a turkey. Another team created a contraption that drew inspiration form various films (e.g. rolling boulder in Indiana Jones and scenes from Inside Out) before finishing with their own version of the Macy’s Day Parade. The third team made up of Javon Ronel, Muhammad Tolibov, Sam Hinish, Mikey Gruber, and Blake Dunaway left the event with hardware! They won the award for “Longest Running Contraption” and “Most Creative Way to Accomplish the Challenge” for their final step featuring the quintessential apple pie.

After the event was concluded, students were able to explore the variety of exhibits at the Carnegie Science Center including a tour of the USS Requin submarine. Many of the students revealed they’d never been there or hadn’t been there since they were very young, so greatly enjoyed the opportunity and experience.