PATTON — Cambria Heights High School physics students took home the top prize during the Chain Reaction Contraption competition at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh.

Six students competed in the Dec. 10 event and spent nearly three months brainstorming and collaborating to come up with a contraption that exceeded their expectations. Their top finish is a first in the local program’s history and came after two rounds of competition.

“It was a really fun project, and it was cool to put all of our minds together and see how everyone thought differently,” said senior Henry Warner, one of the team members. “We really had to think outside the box for this.”

The challenge — which was completed by Warner and fellow classmates Nathan Nihart, Junseo Park, Braden Thomas, Kaylee Thomas and Cole Weiland — was for the students to create a Rube Goldberg Machine, a chain-reaction contraption that completes a simple task in an “overly complicated” way.

The theme for Cambria Heights’ machine was “Our Office,” and students crafted the project by scavenging through their houses and in the school to find everyday objects that could potentially store or hold energy.

According to the competition’s guidelines, the contraption was required to complete at least 20 steps that spanned between 30 seconds and two minutes. It was also not allowed to utilize any batteries or electric power and it had to rely entirely on everyday materials. The contraption was to perform the ultimate task of turning a page. The students started with an old table.

“There was a lot of time and energy put into this,” Nihart said. “Since our theme was ‘Our Office,’ we went around our physics classroom and tried to just find basic office supplies that we could incorporate into our project. It was surprisingly pretty easy to tie everything in.”

Cambria Heights has participated in the competition for the past five years, and students said they had a goal to raise the bar and improve upon each previous contraption.

“They had a lot of discussions about trying to create a machine that was much more innovative than just marbles rolling down ramps,” said Cambria Heights gifted teacher Michele Schirf, who was the adviser for the project.

Students applied learning principles from physics class, placing an emphasis on kinetic and potential energy, stored energy, frictional forces, simple machines, spring energy and gear ratios.

In addition to the educational value the project created, Schirf said one of the most valuable lessons students learned was the ability to collaborate and work together as a team.

“The reason their engineering project was so successful was because they worked well together and everyone felt included and valued,” Schirf said. “As a teacher, it was truly an amazing experience to be able to sit back and watch these six students grow and mature as they worked on this project over the past two and a half months.”

In addition to the first-place finish, Cambria Heights earned special awards as the Longest Successfully Executed Contraption and the Most Innovative.

Thanks to the win, the students will have the opportunity to tour Westinghouse Electric during National Engineers Week and sit down with engineers to learn more about the industry and the responsibilities of an engineer.

Cambria Heights finished above other larger school districts such as Hempfield and Brentwood, which took second and third, respectively.

After years of falling short in the competition, the students at Cambria Heights said they were proud to see the district represented at such a large stage and hope they set the tone for future competitions.

“It’s great to see what a small school like us can really do,” Nihart said. “It’s really inspiring.”

The competition was sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Co., which presented the students with a plaque for the school. Each student also received a $150 Amazon gift card.

Mirror Staff Writer Calem Illig is at 814-946-7535.