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A team of students from Plainfield High School won Argonne's sixth annual Rube Goldberg machine contest, held at the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier Feb. 23.
The seven-member team, calling itself the Wildcats, defeated eight other Chicago-area high schools by building the wackiest machine to select, clean and peel an apple. The machine had to complete its task in 20 or more steps.
Winning team members are Kristy Breese, Ann Markwell, Tiffany Meyers, Jason Misurac, Stephanie Silosky, Steve Warren and Becky Young. The faculty advisor is Daniel R. Chissus.
Second place in the competition was won by William Fremd High School, Palatine, and third place went to Maine Township High School South, Park Ridge.
Rube Goldberg machine contests are inspired by Reuben Lucius Goldberg, whose cartoons combined simple household items into complex devices to perform trivial tasks. The machines combine the principles of physics and engineering, using common objects such as marbles, mousetraps, stuffed animals, electric mixers, vacuum cleaners, rubber tubes, bicycle parts and anything else that happens to be on hand.
Each member of the winning team and their faculty advisor received Argonne superconducting pen and pencil sets, Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts, and a future tour of the laboratory, which will include the virtual reality CAVE, the Advanced Photon Source and lunch with Argonne scientists. The first-place team will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their winning machine at Argonne on the day of their tour and at Purdue University's national intercollegiate Rube Goldberg machine contest Saturday, April 7, 2001.
The top three teams will have the opportunity to compete in the third annual Illinois State Championship Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, to be held in the spring at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. They will compete against the top three teams from the high school Rube Goldberg Machine Contest being held March 2 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign's Engineering Open House.
The Division of Educational Programs and Office of Public Affairs sponsor the February event in collaboration with Chicago Children's Museum, and the National Rube Goldberg machine contest, held annually at Purdue University. The event is licensed by Rube Goldberg, Inc.
Rick Stevens, Mathematics and Computer Science Division director, will be among the experts speaking on "21st Century Science" at a series of lectures at the University of Chicago's Gleacher Center in downtown Chicago.
Sponsored by the university's Graham School of General Studies, the public lectures will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. one Monday each month from March through May on the 6th floor of the Gleacher Center, 450 N. Cityfront Plaza Drive. Cost for the series is $60, or $25 for individual lectures.
March 19 -- Sean Carroll, University of
Chicago assistant professor in physics, will explain how
astronomers have detected the remnant radiation from the Big
Bang that began the universe and the subtle ripples in
space that led to the formation of the first galaxies.
April 23 -- David Weiss, clinical instructor in
orthopedics, surgery, and rehabilitative medicine at
the University Hospitals, will discuss the ability of
modern medicine to diagnose and treat problems that
arise from injury or aging. He also will talk about steps
people can take that will enhance their health and allow
them to remain active as they age.
May 21 -- Stevens will envision what life will be
like beyond the current high-impact computer
technologies that include the World Wide Web, e-mail and
Palm Pilots.
For more information about the lecture series, call (800) 997-9689, or see the lecture series Web page.
It's time for Argonne-East employees to review tornado shelter locations and dust off their home weather radios: March 4-10 is severe weather awareness week in Illinois.
Although Idaho doesn't have enough severe weather to require an official awareness week from the National Weather Service, Argonne-West employees should do the same. The Gem State averages about one tornado a year.
Some 25-30 tornadoes occur annually in Illinois during March, April and May. Argonne-East has been hit by tornados -- luckily, very weak ones -- or menaced by funnel clouds several times.
Each building will have its own tornado drill during March, according to Argonne Emergency Management Officer Mary Goodkind (ESH).
Goodkind listed three procedures employees should follow when severe weather is a possibility:
Know the difference between a watch and a
warning (see story at right).
Know where to seek shelter both at home and
at work.
Monitor weather conditions, preferably on a specialized weather radio.
Employees should know the safest place at home and at work, and know how to get there quickly. Avoid windows and head for the basement or interior hallway; stay low, preferably under a stairwell, heavy table or workbench.
If outside, try to move at a right angle away from the tornado, or find a ditch or culvert to lay down in, and cover your head. Do not remain in an automobile.
Cafeteria shelters
If a tornado warning is sounded during meal service hours, employees using the Building 213 Cafeteria will be directed to one of the building's shelter areas. The basement locker rooms, dock area stairwell, kitchen area, supply and storage rooms on the southeast corner of the building, and the bathrooms near the entrance are all tornado shelter areas.
At home
Goodkind recommended the use of a weather radio to sound the warning at home. Most will sound an alarm automatically if a watch or warning is issued; some have sophisticated "SAME" circuitry that can screen out warnings for faraway areas.
A watch means conditions are right for a tornado
to develop. Watch announcements will be made on
the site-wide public address system. Hazardous materials
may have to be secured, and classified documents have to
be ready to be locked up. Workers in trailers may have to move
to a permanent building.
A warning means a twister has been sighted in the area or detected
by radar. Outdoor sirens will sound, and an
announcement will be made to direct employees to head to
designated tornado shelters immediately and remain there until the
all-clear announcement.
Employees can fill out an online survey to help the Argonne Club Board of Directors gauge interest in several proposed activities -- including outings to see Chicago sports teams.
The anonymous survey takes about one minute to complete.
A representative of the Social Security Administration will visit Argonne-East once a month beginning Wednesday, March 21, from 8 a.m. to noon.
George Cutwright from the Social Security Administration's Joliet office will be available to:
Enroll employees in Social Security.
Take applications for new social security cards, including
original cards for newborns, corrected cards due
to marriage, or replacement cards.
Help with earnings posting problems.
Answer general questions about the social security program.
To schedule a meeting, call Fran Perri (HR) at ext. 2-2989.
The Argonne Credit Union will present a free workshop on retirement investment strategies Tuesday, March 20, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Argonne-East Building 213 Cafeteria, Dining Room A.
This workshop will cover investment portfolio management, avoiding retirement dilemmas and planning for inflation and taxes.
Interested employees are invited to bring their lunches to the workshop.
A representative from MetLife will visit Argonne-East Tuesday, March 8, and Tuesday, March 20, to meet with individual employees and provide insurance comparisons and quotes for the "METPAY" group automobile and homeowner's insurance program.
To schedule an appointment, call Craig Riddick at (630) 810-0346, ext. 143. Employees should fax their auto policy renewal statements to (630) 810-1628 before their appointments.
Human Resources has scheduled several classes during March:
"Presentation Excellence" (HR532) helps
participants improve their presentation delivery
by providing techniques to look, sound and feel
confident, organized and effective. March 15-16, 8:30
a.m. to 5 p.m. in Building 212, Room A157.
"The Supervisory Role In Managing Employee
Issues" (HR643) provides supervisors with a
clear understanding of the laws governing the workplace
and the necessary skills to handle difficult
employee issues. Thursday, March 29, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in
Building 212, Room A157.
"Stop Procrastinating" (HR233), a brown bag
lunch seminar, will be held Thursday, March 22, from
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Building 201, Room 238. This
seminar will focus on increasing personal productivity
by recognizing procrastination patterns and how to
overcome them.
"Russian Language" (HR164) offers both
beginning and intermediate coverage of reading,
writing and speaking the Russian language. The
beginning class will be offered Tuesdays and Thursdays at
10 a.m.; the intermediate class will be offered at 11:00
a.m. Both will be held in Building 208, Room A262.
To enroll in any of these classes, contact a Training Management System representative. Call Betty Iwan (HR) at 2-3410 for more information or visit the Human Resources Web site .
Electronics and Computing Technologies will offer a range of computer software classes at Argonne-East in March.
Full class descriptions are available online. To enroll, contact a division Training Management System representative. For more information about enrollment procedures, contact Diane Cavazos (ECT) at ext. 2-7153 or dkcavazos@anl.gov.
Unless otherwise noted, classes will be held in Building 221, Room A142, cost $195 and are limited to ten participants.
Advanced Word 2000 (ECT378) -- Monday, March 12, 8:30 a.m. -
4:30 p.m. Prerequisites: Introduction and Intermediate Word.
Advanced Excel 2000 (ECT379) -- Tuesday, March 13, 8:30 a.m. -
4:30 p.m. Prerequisites: Introduction and Intermediate
Excel 2000.
Advanced Access 2000 (ECT380) -- Wednesday, March 14, 8:30 a.m. -
4:30 p.m. Prerequisite: Intermediate Access 2000. Class
size limited to eight.
Front Page 2000 (ECT383) -- This class is two full days. Thursday,
March 15, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., and Friday, March 16, 8:30 a.m.
- 4:30 a.m. Class limited to eight. Cost: $390.
