Anderson High School’s Rube Goldberg team came home with a regional win.
Team members recently traveled to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to present their machine to judges, and they were ultimately announced as the first-place winners in the regional Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
David Perrel, the teacher in charge of the team, said he tries not to expect awards from the machines, but instead tries to ensure the students feel proud about the work they accomplish.
“It was very exciting for the kids to get that first-place win,” Perrell said. “I try not to focus as much on what did you take home as an award, but just to have a good day and feel like you did your best and share your hard work that you put into it with other people.
“(The students) spend a lot of time rebuilding and modifying and improving it, so there’s pride that they take in what they do.”
Each year, the competition selects a new task that each machine each team creates needs to complete during the judging process. This year’s task was opening a box.
At each competition, teams are judged on numerous aspects of the machine, including first impressions, the overall theme of the machine and how each team incorporates a sense of humor into its creation.
The theme the Anderson contingent chose this year was to build something based on pirates and ships, with the 35-step machine completing its task of opening a treasure chest.
Senior Allison Rios has been on the team for four years. She said this year’s machine was different from years past.
“We did a pirate thing, and it worked out really well,” Rios said. “We were able to make it more innovative and make it more hands-on for the audience’s appeal, and with the boat especially, it was pulling (the machine) closer to the audience.
“I felt like there was more involvement because we made it bigger this year.”
Senior Christian Crawford said the location of the regional competition felt closely related to what the competition is about.
“The place that we did it at, the motor speedway, I feel like that tied in engineering and the whole innovative concept,” Crawford said.
“Even doing it in that room, it was pretty cool.” Rios agreed.
“It felt less intense than other competitions I’ve been in because of the environment,” she said. “It was very amazing that we were to just be able to be in that space and for them to take their time and allow us to be there was incredible.”
The Anderson team will participate in the virtual 2026 World Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, with a livestream of the competition planned for Memorial Day weekend.
Perrel said he hopes the students will look back on their experience fondly after they graduate.
“I just hope that this is one of the highlights that these young people will take away from their high school experience,” Perrel said. “They may not remember all the lessons they did in the classrooms, but this will be one they will remember.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.