Week 8: Rube Goldberg Machine

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Your Challenge

It’s our FINAL challenge of the 2025 season — and we’re going out with a bang!

A movie director is filming a documentary about the wild inventions of Rube Goldberg, and you’ve been invited to build a machine worthy of the big screen. Rube Goldberg was an American engineer and cartoonist who drew incredibly complex machines that performed ridiculously simple tasks. A Rube Goldberg machine brings those silly inventions to life — one chain reaction at a time.

Now it’s your turn: Your challenge is to build your own Rube Goldberg Machine! Make it playful, make it creative, and most of all — make it work!

Full Contest Rules Online Workshop Enter Now!

Important Challenge Dates:

August 17 | Video entries due by 9pm.
August 18-19 | Voting is open. Be sure to vote for all of your favorite videos!
August 19 | Winners announced around 8pm
August 27 | 2025 End-of-Summer Awards Show!

For more information about contest entry and voting, click here.

Complete the Challenge.
You have until August 17 at 9pm ET to work on your challenge and submit your solution. See our full contest rules to learn what you can and cannot do.

Get the same support that participants in our in-person workshops receive by completing our weekly online STEM course.

Make a video showing your solution.
Try to keep your video under 90-seconds long and include the following:
• The name of your solution.
• How does it work?
• What materials did you use?
• Did you have to overcome any problems?
• What was the biggest lesson you learned?

You can see tips to creating great entry videos here.

EPIC FAIL! Failure is an important part of the engineering and invention process. It’s how we learn and move forward. Be proud of your failures and show them off. If you capture a failed solution attempt on video, be sure to enter it separately into the Epic Fail contest category. The most impressive failure of the week will win a prize!

Your video will be visible to anyone with an internet connection, so it’s important to protect your privacy and stay safe. See our guidelines for more information.

Enter the contest by 9:00pm ET on August 17.
Ask a parent to upload your video to our website using our online entry form.

All contest and epic fail entries will receive 1 point for our big end-of-the-summer prize drawing!
You can earn bonus points for:

  • Completing our Online STEM Class – 1 point
  • Getting a friend to participate in their first ever Invent the Summer challenge
    (make sure they give you credit) – 5 points
  • Completing 3 challenges in a row – 3 points
  • Completing 5 challenges – 5 points
  • Completing ALL 8 challenges – 5 points

View other solutions and VOTE!
You can see all the solutions and vote for your favorites from 12:00pm ET on Monday, August 18 until 3:00pm ET on Tuesday, August 19. See our voting rules for more information.

Winners announced at around 8:00pm on August 19!
Audience Choice Award: Goes to the solution with the most votes.
Editor’s Choice Award: Selected by the Junior Board of Engineers. Solutions will be
judged on originality, execution and presentation.
Epic Fail Award: Given to the most impressive failure of the week. Selected by the Junior Board of Engineers.

Winners receive their choice of an Invent the Summer t-shirt, notebook, or drawstring bag.