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Teams and machines are evaluated by two distinct sets of contest officials: Referees and Judges.

REFEREES are contest organizers, contest veterans, teachers, or engineers who fully understand the contest rules.

What they do: Referees use specific criteria to quantitatively evaluate your machine and team requirements. Referees will score your machine at specified assigned times. At this assigned time, the team will introduce their machine, complete run #1, reset, and then complete run #2. The referees will evaluate the team & machine on the items found on the sample Referee Form in the SCORING AND JUDGING SECTION.

Evaluation of the team & machine on the items found on the sample Referee Form will be done exclusively by the Referees.

JUDGES are industry engineers, sponsors, celebrities/local personalities, and contest veterans who teams should work to impress based on their team spirit, communication, and the fun and playful elements of their machine.

What they do: Judges will walk the floor and pods freely while teams run their machine continuously for the audience and referees. The team’s job is to demonstrate to the Judges the items found on the judging form. The Judges use their personal judgement and point of view to evaluate your team and machine in the three judging categories. These categories and their explanations can be found on the Judging Form, in the SCORING AND JUDGING SECTION.

Scores in the following categories will be completed exclusively by the Judges:

n PROFESSOR BUTTS’ CREATIVE SPARK CATEGORY (THEME) 20% of your score will be based on the theme that you’ve created for your machine. Your introduction – which sets the stage for the narrative of your machine – is also considered. Another variable upon which you will be judged is your clever use of recognizable everyday objects in the transference of energy in your machine. If this is confusing, look at a Rube Goldberg cartoon... he used household items - not marble runs or domino runs - to create the chain reactions in his inventions.

n RUBE GOLDBERG SPIRIT OF HILARIOUS INVENTION CATEGORY (HUMOR) 20% of your score will be based on how funny your machine is. How do you make a chain reaction funny? Read some of Rube Goldberg’s cartoons, and see how he does it. Hopefully it will give you some good ideas for your machine. The goal is to make the judges laugh during the introduction and run of your machine.

n HELPING HAND TEAMWORK CATEGORY (TEAMWORK) 20% of your score will be based on how well your team works together. Teams that communicate well, have a strong chemistry and a positive attitude during the competition – including during the machine reset, fixing machine problems, and during the machine run – will garner high marks. The teamwork score is also factored into the introduction to your machine and how well you as a team present your machine to the judges.

The qualities RGMC values are creativity, humor and teamwork.

The team that scores highest in the Creative Spark, Hilarious Invention and Teamwork categories is likely to be the First Place winner.

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2019 SCORING AND JUDGING1. HOW TEAMS AND MACHINES ARE EVALUATED

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Overall contest placing and the percentage that refs and judges contribute to each: Division I and II:

n 1st place (40% referees and 60% judges)

n 2nd place (40% referees and 60% judges)

n 3rd place (40% referees and 60% judges)

Apprentice:

n 100% judges

For contest scoring and determination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams, Contest Hosts MUST have access to Microsoft Excel during the contest.

NOTE: The judging and referee forms shown on the following pages are primarily for reference and to illustrate the computations involved in scoring. Score tabulation is done digitally via an Excel spreadsheet. At the competition, judges and referees will make notes but actual scoring will be done electronically.

2019 SCORING AND JUDGING1. HOW TEAMS AND MACHINES ARE EVALUATED

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Teams will be assigned into pods of not more than 9 teams. Round rankings (1st - 9th) will be determined based on the referee and judge scores.

For competitions with 9 or fewer teams, the top 3 ranked teams will be the top 3 winners of the competition.

For competitions with 10 - 18 teams, the top 3 ranked teams from each of the two pods will advance to a second round of judging, where a panel of judges will judge the round 2 teams again. The referee scores from round 1 will be used in round 2 final scoring. Then, the top 3 ranked teams in round 2 will be the top 3 winners of the competition.

SAMPLE BRACKET and SCORING TIMING

ROUND 1

Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Team 4 Team 5Team 6 Team 7Team 8Team 9

Team 10Team 11Team 12Team 13Team 14Team 15Team 16Team 17Team 18

Team 19Team 20Team 21Team 22Team 23Team 24Team 25Team 26Team 27

POD 1

POD 2

POD 3

FINAL ROUND

Team 1 Team 4 Team 9 Team 11 Team 15Team 18Team 22Team 23Team 27

WINNERS

Team 4 - 1st PlaceTeam 23 - 2nd PlaceTeam 11 - 3rd Place

Top3

Teams

Top3

Teams

Top3

Teams

Time it takes

to score Round 1

Time it takes to scoreFinal

Round

Timing 1-3 hours 30 min 1-1.30 hours 30 min (20 min/team) (10 min/team)

2019 SCORING AND JUDGING2. HOW THE JUDGING (POD) SYSTEM WORKS

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Metric Run 1 Results Run 2 Results Touch Repeated Across Runs? (circle one)

1st Touched Step Name Marble run Ball shooter Yes / No

2nd Touched Step Name Marble run Yes / No

3rd Touched Step Name Tower step Yes / No

4th Touched Step Name Yes / No

5th Touched Step Name Yes / No

Total Number of Unique Touches (sum of above) 1 3 2

Task Completed (circle one) Yes / No Yes / No

Number of Out of Bounds Objects 0 1

Run Time (M:SS) 1:35 2:15

Other Rule Violations (describe) None None

The Referee must evaluate each machine in the order below. n Each machine will be observed by at least 2 referees, who will take notes on their own copies of this form. n After a team has completed its second run, referees must agree upon and submit a single form. 1. Machine Construction and Introduction INSTRUCTIONS: Examine the machine and verify the following metrics between the documentation of the machine and the actual machine. Write the verified values in the right-hand column.

2. Machine IntroductionINSTRUCTIONS: Using a stopwatch, time the machine introduction. n If the Machine Introduction exceeds 3 minutes, stop the team.

3. Machine RunsINSTRUCTIONS: Referees must monitor and time (using a stopwatch) each machine run and note the steps that are touched, whether the task is completed, and count the number of out-of-bounds objects. After Run 1, each team has no more than 8 minutes to reset their machine before continuing with Run 2. This must be timed and enforced by the referees.

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Referee 1 Name Referee 2 Name

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________Referee 1 Signature Referee 2 Signature

Metric Verified Value

Number of Steps in the machine, verified against the Step List• A step in the machine is a transfer of energy from one action to another action.

Identical transfers of energy in succession should be counted as 1 step.

25

Actual Machine Volume, verified against the Machine Volume Worksheet 250 ft3

Other Rule Violations, verified against the Rulebook None

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2019 SCORING AND JUDGING3. EXAMPLE: COMPLETED REFEREE FORM

TEAM NAME: Purple Monster Eaters TEAM NUMBER: 221

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Machine Constructionn If the total number of steps is less than the minimum (10 for Apprentice and Division I. 20 for Division II), then the machine is disqualified.

Machine Runs

Category Score Calculation Example Score

Step Score Step Score = number of steps / 3 rounded down if the number of steps is less than or equal to 75Step Score = 25 - 3 * the number of steps if the number of steps is greater than 75

= 8 points

Machine Volume Penalty Machine Volume Penalty = 0 if the machine volume in ft3 is less than or equal to 300 ft3Machine Volume Penalty = -1 * (machine volume in ft3 - 300) if the machine volume in ft3 is greater than 300 ft3

250 ft3 < 300ft3à 0 points(no penalty)

Other Rule Violations Penalty

-5 * number of other rule violations Noneà 0 points(no penalty)

SUBTOTAL - CONSTRUCTION 8 points

Category Score Calculation Example Run 1 Score

Example Run 2 Score

Reliability 15 – 3 * number of touched steps 15 – 3 * 1 = 12 points

15 – 3 * 3= 6 points

Repeatability 15 – 3 * number of touches not repeated across runs

15 – 3 * 2= 9 points

Task Completion 15 points (yes) or 0 points (no) 15 (yes) 15 (yes)

Out of Bounds Objects -5 * number of out of bounds objects -5 * 0 = 0 points (no penalty)

-5 * 1 = -5 points(1 object)

Run Time Penalty -3 for every 5 seconds over 2 minutes 1:35 < 2:00! 0 points(no penalty)

2:15 < 2:00! -3 * (0:15 / 0:05) = -9 points

Other Rule Violations -5 * number of other rule violations None None

SUBTOTAL - RUNS 27 points 16 points

Category Score

Subtotal - Construction 8 points

Subtotal – Run 1 27 points

Subtotal – Run 2 16 points

Final Refereed Score 51 points (out of a possible 100 points)

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2019 SCORING AND JUDGING4. EXAMPLE: REFEREE SCORE TABULATION

TEAM NAME: Purple Monster Eaters TEAM NUMBER: 221

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To determine an overall pod or contest ranking, your Contest Host will be inputting the Referee’s score and Judge’s rankings into an electronic form.

n This form does the calculations to determine your team’s overall pod and/or overall contest place.

n The Referee’s score, which is based off a 100-point scale, is worth 40% of your overall weighted rank.

n Since the Judges have already ranked your team against the rest of your pod (or round), these ranks are inputted into the electronic form. Each Judged category is worth 20% of your overall rank.

NOTE: The following explanation is to aid the understanding of how a team’s overall contest place is determined. It is NOT meant to be used to determine overall contest place at the competition. An electronic form will be used for these calculations to prevent errors.

PROCESS: Each team’s final place will be determined by combining the Referee’s team score, and each of the three Judged rankings. Each of these are then weighted to create an overall rank among the teams in your pod, and in the case of a final round, the team’s place in the overall contest.

For example, if your team placed in the final round:

n 85 points based on the Referee’s score sheet (40% total overall weight)

n An average 3rd in the Rube Goldberg Creative Spark category ranking (20% total overall weight)

n An average 1st in the Spirit of Rube Goldberg category ranking (20% total overall weight)

n An average 4th in the Rube Goldberg Teamwork category ranking (20% total overall weight)

By using your team’s score from the Referee and the rank from the three judged categories, these values are inputted into the electronic scoresheet which determines your overall score from 1 – 100. Teams are then ranked from highest score to lowest score, with the highest overall scoring being the First Place team, the second highest overall score being the Second Place team, and so on down the list.

Thus, for our theoretical team, here is how an overall score tabulation would look:

STEP 1: Since each pod can contain a maximum of 9 teams, we tabulate each average Judge ranking into a point total which is inverse to their rank. By using the example team above:

EXAMPLE: The completed math for the “Rube Goldberg Creative Spark category ranking” is… 9 - (3rd – 1) = 7

THEMATH:

PTS=9-(RANK-1)Referee’sPoints RubeGoldberg

Crea;veSparkRankSpiritofRubeGoldberg

RankUn-RubeGoldbergTeamworkRank

YourTeam’sRank(RANK) N/A 3rd 1st 4th

Points(PTS) 85 7 9 6

2019 SCORING AND JUDGING5. SCORING EXPLANATION - PAGE 1 OF 3 (ACTUAL SCORING IS COMPLETED ELECTRONICALLY)

TEAM NAME: Purple Monster Eaters TEAM NUMBER: 221

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THEMATH:

TotalofallWeightedScores

RefereeWeightedScore

RubeGoldbergCrea;veSparkWeightedScore

SpiritofRubeGoldbergWeighted

Score

Un-RubeGoldbergTeamwork

WeightedScoreGRANDTOTAL

WeightedScore(WS) 34 15.6 20.0 13.3 82.9

PLACE TEAM GRANDTOTALSCORE

1st EverestSchool 84.0

2nd OUREXAMPLETEAM 82.9

3rd McKinleySchool 80.1

4th KilimanjaroSchool 76.8

5th MaIerhornSchool 76.0

6th KosciuszkoSchool 75.5

7th MaunaKeaSchool 74.9

8th AconcaguaSchool 73.3

9th VinsonSchool 72.6

THEMATH:

REF:WS=PTSxPCTJudge:WS=((PTS/9)x100)xPCT

Referee’sPointsRubeGoldberg

Crea=veSparkRankSpiritofRubeGoldberg

RankUn-RubeGoldbergTeamworkRank

PointsfromStep1(PTS) 85 7 9 6

ContestWeight%(PCT) 40% 20% 20% 20%

WeightedScore(WS) 34 15.6 20.0 13.3

STEP 2: Each of the point totals are weighted according to the category weighting requirements. Again, we are using our Example Team:

EXAMPLE: The completed math for the Referee’s Points is… 85 points x .40 = 34 points The completed math for the “Spirit of Rube Goldberg” is… ((9 / 9) x 100) x .20 = 20.0 points

STEP 3: The Weighted Score Points are then added up for each team and ranked versus the other teams in their pod or Final Round. The highest point total is the First Place Team, second highest point total is 2nd place, and on down the list.

EXAMPLE: 34 points + 15.6 points + 20.0 points + 13.3 points = 82.9 Total Points

STEP 4 (NON-TIE): Your Grand Total Score is now ranked against the teams in your Pod. The top point earning team takes First Place, the second point earning team takes Second Place, and on down the list.

EXAMPLE: Your team would have taken SECOND PLACE!

2019 SCORING AND JUDGING5. SCORING EXPLANATION - PAGE 2 OF 3 (ACTUAL SCORING IS COMPLETED ELECTRONICALLY)

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STEP 4 (TIE-BREAKER): Let’s say for example, your team is tied for 2nd place with McKinley School with a Grand Total Score of 82.9. The Contest Host & Scoresheet would use the following items to break the tie in the following order.

1. The team with the most steps

2. The machine with the fewest interventions across both scored runs

3. The longest machine run up to the maximum of 2:00 minutes

4. By Coin Flip

Here is how our example team faired:

EXAMPLE: Since your team had the longest run over McKinley School, you would have taken the place over McKinley.

TieBreakingCriteria EXAMPLESCHOOL McKinleySchool BreakTie?

1) MostSteps 30Steps 30Steps NO

2) FewestInterven6ons 2TotalInterven6ons 2TotalInterven6ons NO

3) LongestRun 1:45 1:30 YES,EXAMPLESCHOOL

4) CoinFlip NOTNEEDED

Trouser Fans - keep the dust away from your white trousers.

2019 SCORING AND JUDGING5. SCORING EXPLANATION - PAGE 3 OF 3 (ACTUAL SCORING IS COMPLETED ELECTRONICALLY)