Eau Claire County team wins quirky science contest
MENOMONIE, Wis. — A high school team from Eau Claire County has won a quirky contest by building an intentionally complex machine to water a plant.
The students from New Auburn High School won top honors Tuesday in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. The contest is named for the late cartoonist known for his drawings of complicated devices performing simple tasks.
The winners beat out eight competing teams in the contest at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Their machine includes levers, pulleys and a catapult. The final steps involve a toy tank driving across the floor and hitting a baseball bat, which causes a squirt gun to empty water into a bucket.
New Auburn advances to the national competition in Michigan in two weeks. New Auburn won national titles in 2005 and 2006.