2018-19 Contest Orientation

Tie a Knot! This Year’s Challenge Carnegie Science Center Team Registration and Set-up – 7:00 – 8:00 Preliminary Round – 8:00 – 11:00 Special Awards Ceremony and Announcement of Finalists – 12:00 – 12:30 Final Round – 12:45 – 3:30 Final Awards Ceremony – 3:30 – 4:00 Carnegie Science Center Friday, December 7, 2018 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Chain Reaction Contraption Contest Pre-contest day activities Register and set-up (7:00 – 8:00) Preliminary Round (8:00 – 11:30) Operations Judging Special Awards Judging Special Awards Winners & Finalists (12:00-12:30) Final Round (12:45-3:30) Final Awards Ceremony (3:30-4:00) The Science Center will not be able to print anything out for you, or provide you with any supplies on contest day. You will get your location assignment and judging times on contest day.

Awards Operations Judging Special Awards Judging The 4 official team members and the school from the top 3 teams will receive prizes Special Awards Judging Best Use of Gravity Rookie of the Year Longest Successfully Executed Contraption Best Presentation Most Efficient Reset Best Execution of a Theme

Official Handbook Check out the handbook for a complete list of rules, score sheets, forms, available points, potential deductions and important dates! www.chainreactioncontest.org

Photographic Progress Reports A picture or two of the contraption's evolution Summary of what has happened Issues/challenges Innovative applications Due Nov 2nd Nov 16th Nov 30th Chainreactioncontraption@gmail.com

Break Out Sessions Contraption Demonstration Contest Day Judging process, what we are looking to see, rules Operations Judging Special Awards Judging

2017-18 Contraption Demonstration Greater Latrobe Senior High School What Will You Create? Award Winner 2nd Place Winner

Tips for Success – Pre-contest Step 1 – Read the Handbook! Pay attention to the score sheets while planning your contraption and contest day strategy. Come up with a design and construction plan Set a schedule Complete all activities on-time and in-full Dream, Build, Test and Revise – Think Repeatable Be patient, allow time to correct the flaws Be bold: change a step if it does not perform consistently Be creative and don’t get discouraged Practice

Tips for Success – Contest Day Anticipate what could happen Emergency supplies and consumables (your “triage kit”) Transportation issues Show your hard work A polished verbal presentation “sells” your contraption Highlight key, unique and creative approaches and steps Contraption Operation Have a checklist and use it to make sure everything is right before starting each run. Check with the judges before touching the contraption. Relax and have Fun! When you arrive on contest day, your preliminary round operations and special awards judging times will be provided to you. Example from Bay High School – metal tube expanded in Cold on drive in, which caused problems until it warmed up (magnet went down the tube). Other examples of parts that break on the way in. Don’t expect to have access to electrical power. Come prepared on contest day to make at least 8 runs of your contraption. If your contraption is not working perfectly on contest day, come anyway! There are special awards for which your team will be judged, and a ton of ideas for the following year which your team will see.

Questions?

Several Key Questions How well does the contraption complete the requirements of the task? How unique and creative is the approach to achieving the task? How creative is the engineering design of the contraption? Total 145 points – 15 pre-contest, 20 verbal presentation, 110 contraption operation.

Contraption Jeopardy What is the maximum size limit for the contraption? What is the minimum amount of time the contraption may operate in a single run? How many points are deducted for a human intervention? What is the minimum expected number of steps? What is the first pre-contest deliverable? What is the task for this year?

Contraption Jeopardy How many students can represent the contraption for the judges on contest day? What is a “restart”? How long do the students have to complete the verbal presentation? How many points are available for the pre-contest submittals? How many times do you have to run the contraption for the judges? What day is the contest?

Step Definition A step is defined as an action that results in another action working towards the final goal of the contraption. For example, the act of tipping over a block of wood with a rolling ball is a step. The actual tipping motion of the block is NOT a step, unless it causes another action to occur. A series of the same actions repeated (such as dominoes knocking each other over or a ball hitting another ball) is considered to be one step in the spirit of the Chain Reaction Contraption Contest. Any questions???

Conceptual Design An illustrative drawing or drawings of your ideas for your contraption Does not need to match contest day contraption Detailed step information is not required Due October 19th

Rules Dimensions The finished contraption must not exceed 5 ft x 3 ft x 2 ft. The contraption, while operating, must remain inside the dimensions. The platform is included in the maximum dimension measurement.

Rules Restarts & Human Interventions Time Limit If your contraption should fail during its operation, you may decide whether to: continue the run by helping a step along (a human intervention) give up on the run and starting over (a restart) Time Limit Each contraption must take at least 30 seconds to run completely through its steps and must not run longer than 2 minutes. Your reset must take less than 4 minutes.