1. Contest Orientation

2. Weigh It! 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 8, 2017
7:00 AM – 4:00 PM

3. 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 on contest day.

4. Awards Operations Judging Special Awards Judging
The top 3 teams will receive prizes
For the School
For the 4 Official Team Members
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

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

6. Photographic Progress Reports
A picture or two of the contraption's evolution
Summary of what has happened
Issues/challenges
Innovative applications
Due Oct 3oth Nov 13th Dec 1st

7. Team Participation
Max of 4 students to represent the contraption on contest day
More than 4 can participate in contraption design and build
Each school may register one additional team for the contest.
An individual student may participate on one team
Only one team per school can compete in the final round of the contest.
Conventional High Schools, Charter Schools, Technical Schools and Home Schools may participate

8. Break Out Sessions Contraption Demonstration Contest Day Judging
Contest – Unlock and Lock it up
Greater Latrobe Senior High School
South Fayette High School
Contest Day Judging
process, what we are looking to see, rules
Operations Judging
Special Awards Judging

9. 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

10. 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!
Your arrival time will be provided to you. 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.

11. Questions?

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. 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?

15. 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???

16. Contraption Materials
Teams must provide an assessment of the total cost of the contraption and the % of used materials
New materials
Materials that are donated or purchased in new condition
Use fair market value (e.g. Lowes) or actual cost
Used materials
Materials that are recycled or scavenged for use
Use reasonable assessment (garage sale/Goodwill)

17. 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 16th

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. Contraption Demonstration
Contest – Construct a Building

21. Contraption Demonstration
Contest – Unlock and Lock it up