Garver partners with Museum of Discovery for Chain Reaction Contest

To help cultivate a creative, STEM-focused activity for families who may be searching for fun home-based projects, Garver recently partnered with Southwest Power Pool (SPP) to sponsor the Museum of Discovery’s Chain Reaction Contest.

The contest aims to engage the public by challenging families and individuals to put their creativity and engineering skills to use by creating Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction machines with items found around their homes.

The contest consists of two categories, a family-engineered category and an adult-engineered category. Participants are asked to submit videos of their chain reactions that accomplish a simple task in a complicated way to the Museum of Discovery website by May 26. Submissions will be judged on various factors including level of difficulty, creativity, and run time. Entries will be awarded bonus points for creating a chain reaction that results in turning on a light and for filming their chain reactions in one take.

Winners of the contest will receive a Museum of Discovery membership and a Garver Chain Reaction Challenge STEM kit, so they can continue the engineering fun at home.

With science experiments featured on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Museum of Discovery is recognized as Arkansas’s premier science and technology center. The museum looks to encourage a passion for STEM concepts through interactive experiences. With the need for families to stay home during the threat of COVID-19, the chain reaction competition is part of the museum’s “At Home Discoveries” featuring at-home learning opportunities for children and adults of all ages.

Garver and Museum of Discovery have been long-time community partners, both with a mission to engage young minds and help shape the next generation of STEM students and engineers.

“Even working outside the walls of the museum, the Museum of Discovery team continues to provide engaging educational content and experiences for families throughout the region,” said Garver Director of Transportation Jerry Holder. “When kids build chain reaction machines, they gain a better understanding of STEM concepts, the engineering design process, critical-thinking skills, and the importance of perseverance. And hopefully, they will envision themselves in STEM careers like engineering one day.”

For more information and tips on building a chain reaction machine, click here.